Living in the down under, where women throw and men chunder (or something like that). That song remains one of my favorite songs. I remember actually seeing Men at Work perform in an absolute fantastic concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. Ah, my young and stupid years. Now I'm older and probably still not much smarter. Oh well.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I discovered that I wanted to get to share some of the things I got to see on my travels. Unfortunately, I didn't have a girlfriend I could take along and my sister Ellie was busy with school (don't forget kid, we still gotta do a trip to Egypt some time). I don't know where I heard of Globus but, they sounded like a good company. I decided to see what tours they had available. It turned out they have a very nice tour called G'day Australia. It gives you 12 days in Australia. You get to see Sydney, Cairns (including the Great Barrier Reef), Alice Springs, Ayers Rock and the Olgas, and Melbourne. Not bad for 12 days plus 2 days travelling. I thought it was just what I wanted so I did some more searching on the internet and found Affordable Tours. They offer a 10% discount on the ground only portion of the tour and 13% on ground and airfare. It's not a bad deal though there is one catch. You never deal with a real face. You deal with these folks entirely over the phone and via email. If you have a problem with this, don't use them. As it was, I didn't have a problem with that and ended up being very pleased with them.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I booked my tour with them, got up to the six week mark, and Globus cancelled it because of a lack of people signing up. I was stunned. I was still determined to go to Australia though so I waited for Globus to release their 2004 tour dates and then booked the tour again. This time, I got lucky. The tour went.
I was big time nervous about the trip. This tour ended costing me over $5,800! That was before souvenirs, additional tours, optional meals, and what have you. I wasn't going to take any chances on things getting messed up on this trip. (I will have to tell you about my misadventures to Iceland some time.) I arrived at BWI airport 2 and a half hours before my flight. I didn't want to take any chances on the airport shuttle failing to show and causing me to miss my flight. (this has happened) I was glad to be at the airport because things were pretty much now out of my control. I did have to change planes in Dallas and L.A. and so had to find those gates but otherwise it was in the hands of the airlines. Scary thought I suppose. I remember arriving in L.A., finding the gate, and then looking around to see if there was anyone else with a Globus bag or name tag on. That was when I first met Harvey. Harvey is in his early 70's I think and was sitting by himself. I saw the Globus bag and decided to get up my courage and say hi. He said hi back and I asked if he was going on the G'day Australia tour. He said he was and I said I was too and it was nice to meet you. I forget if we chatted much more. I know they finally started boarding the plane and I told him I'd see him in Sydney.
The flight ended up being pretty nice. I had an aisle seat which helps with my long legs. To my annoyance, it was in economy which I hate. Worse still, the flight was over 11 hours. That was a LONG time to be stuck in economy. Fortunately, Qantas stocked a good supply of Victoria Bitter. I'm not a big drinker of alcohol but as long as I don't have to drive, I'll drink a beer or a glass of wine on occasion. I'm also very partial to champagne. I have been ever since I was introduced to sunrisers on my first flight from London to Detroit on Pan Am (when they were still flying internationally). Sunrisers rock, though truthfully, any good champagne rocks.
I didn't feel like champagne and I'd heard that Australia had some good beers. There were only two I was familiar with: Foster's and Broken Hill Lager. For some reason, I decided to try Victoria Bitter. Good choice my son. Three of those and the flight was a whole lot nicer.
We arrived in Sydney at 10:30 p.m. on a Saturday. Customs and immigration went smoothly and our guide Jan Elphinstone (may she be forever blessed, she is a wonderful person) had a sign and corraled all of us together. Once everyone was accounted for, she told us when we would meet for breakfast (6:30 a.m., you've got to be kidding!), herded us out to the bus, assigned us our hotel rooms when we arrived at the hotel, and wished us all a good night's sleep. Yah, right!
Amazingly, I think everyone showed up for breakfast slowly but surely. After that, I think we got together and that was when Jan showed us the list of optional tours. There were some seriously cool things on the list. You could go camel riding, hot air ballooning, scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, do a dinner tour of Melbourne on a moving trolley, visit some wineries, visit an old Australian gold mining town where you could pan for gold, and other assorted things. There were other events Jan could arrange for you too as I found out (don't worry, it isn't dirty, I'm not that kind of person, if you're disappointed, too bad).
After that, we walked across the street to the Sydney Aquarium. It ended up being a nice place where you got to see various fishes and some pretty cool dolphins. We then boarded the bus and started our tour of Sydney. One thing of note was our visit to Mrs. Macquarie's chair. Mrs. Macquaries chair is where Mrs. Macquarie, wife of the Governor of Australia back in 1815 or so, would go to see if there were any sign of arriving ships. It has a very nice view of the harbor and it was there that we had our group picture taken like so many other groups did. It was also where I found out about a particularly interesting thing you can do in Sydney. You can climb the Sydney harbor bridge!
I was taking pictures of the Sydney skyline and I noticed what looked like ants on the Sydney Harbor bridge. I asked Jan about them and she told me they were people. I asked what they heck were they doing on the bridge! (they up on the very top of it mind you) She said they were climbing it. I was thoroughly certain the Aussies were crazy. It turned out that some one got the idea that people might like to climb the Sydney Harbor bridge and so sought permission to do so. Incredibly enough, the eventually got it and it is a major tourist attraction.
Now let me tell you something about myself. I don't like bridges. I look down from them and I see that usually it is a LONG way down and, I don't like the thought if what would happen if I fell all that way DOWN. So I tend to leave bridges alone. Consequently, I have no idea what inspired me to sign up for the Harbor Bridge climb. I know only one thing for certain. I wasn't drunk, I wasn't even slightly inebriated, I had all my wits about me. Right!!!!!
Jan took me to the welcome center where you pay your $110 Australian, sign a form saying the people running the climb aren't responsible if something happens to you (smart move on their part), get a briefing on what is going to happen during the climb, line up for equipment issue, take off your own clothes, put on the climbing clothes and gear, and then line up to begin the climb. Your guide checks to make sure everyone can hear them on their headphone set. You are then guided to where you insert your locking mechanism (which is attached to a line which is attached to you) on to a metal cord that lines the entire route and from which you won't be disconnected until you step off the bridge. You then begin your climb. While you're climbing, the guide tells you some interesting things about the bridge. You find out how many rivets it took (I don't remember how many she said), how long it took to build it, how much steel it took etcetera. The truly scary part comes when you get up on the arches and climb to the top. If you are afraid of heights, don't even think about looking down because it is a LONG way down! You look out and you realize you are above the top of the Sydney Opera House. Oh crap! You actually go all the way to the top. 420 feet up! That is where you get the free group picture that is included in the price of the climb. It is also proof that you are totally insane. I have no idea if that picture can be used in a court of law against you when they question your sanity. But, it is a cool picture. They also take your picture at other points along the climb. You can buy copies of those pictures at the souvenir shop later. All totalled, I think the climb took something like an hour and a half or so. I NEVER imagined I would do something like that but, I was glad I did. It was a blast and I started my Australian adventure off in a very exciting way.
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