Published

To my total surprise, I will soon have something published that I wrote sort of. As I've mentioned in previous blogs, Globus and their family of tour groups has a website called The Travel Exchange (http://www.exchangetravelstories.com/default.aspx). You can post stories on this website of your adventures on one of their tours. You can also earn Go Points which are redeemable for gift certificates with Amazon and Gift Certificates.Com. When I found out about the site, I decided to tell about my Globus tour of Australia. The tour was absolutely fantastic and really sold me on Globus tours. Because of that tour, I did a tour last year to Scandanavia and will be doing a 2-week tour of France this year. Anyway, to my surprise, I heard from a lady at Globus who informed me they wanted to use an excerpt from one my Australia stories in their eNewsletter. I was delighted. I'm going to be published sort of. I think that's pretty cool. A side result of this is that I've started writing stories for the site about my Scandanavia tour. I hope those stories will turn out as nice as the Australia ones did. We'll see.

Globus Travel Site

As I mentioned previously, Globus now has a website (http://www.exchangetravelstories.com) where travellers can tell of their adventures on various tours with the Globus chain (they have 5 different travel companies). I decided to tell of the G'day Australia tour with Auckland add-on I took back in January 24, 2004 to February 8, 2004. It was the best tour I've ever been on. Our tour guide Jann Elphinstone was absolutely fantastic. I got to do so many cool things and the people in our group were so nice. I was terribly saddened when it was over. It's because of that tour that I'm looking so much to the Scandanavia tour.

Anyway, I had to do my narrative in six parts: Sydney, Cairns, Alice Springs, Ayers Rock, Melbourne and Auckland. We'll see if they post them. Also, I looked for stories on their tours to Scandanavia. I'd like to know how good they are. Sadly, no one has posted anything from those countries. It looks like I'll have to find out when I go on the tour.

Movie Review - The Dish

Yesterday, I finally pulled out a movie I'd bought on the spur of the moment and watched it. The movie is called The Dish. It is about a group of Australians and one American who run a communications relay station in Parkes, Australia. This station became the primary communications station which forwarded to the world television images of Neil Armstrong's historic walk on the moon. However, as the movie tells, there were some major glitches and the historic moon walk was almost NOT televised. These glitches as well as struggles between the Australians and the American give the movie its conflict. The movie also is a time capsule of how things were in Australia in the 60's as well as the world. To those of us who find laptop computers and cell phones blase, it is an eye opener to see a time when the standard calculator was a slide rule! It also gives us a benchmark on how far we've come since that Armstrong's historic moment. Since that time, we've sent mechanized probes that have explored the Martian surface and explorer spacecraft to the very edge of our solar system. There is talk of sending a manned mission to Mars. The mind boggles how far we've come and yet the first truly great step was when Armstrong stepped on the moon. Space travel from that point was no longer the stuff of science fiction writers. This movie gives us picture of those incredible tumultuous times.

I believe the movie was created for the Australian market but I think Americans would enjoy the movie as well. It shows some of the funny quirks of the Australians as well as some of the differences between American and Australian english. Repeatedly, one of the Australians on the team have to translate for the American when one of the other Australians starts using Australian English terms. It can be very amusing. Overall, I'd rate the movie as very nice. It is something to watch on a day when you want to want to watch something relaxing and funny. I'm not sure how easy it would be to be able to find the movie at your local video rental shop but, if you can't find it there, you should be able to buy it cheaply at Movies Unlimited or some other big internet store that offers lots of movies for sale. I believe when I bought the movie, it cost less than $10.

Cairns - Part III

Time to finish my tale of my adventures in Cairns, Australia. Since my last post, I managed to find the trip itinerary that Jann (our guide) gave the group so my narrative should be more accurate. The picture to the left is a picture of the train we took from Cairns to Kuranda. The cars were old fashioned cars with benches in them for seats. In the following pictures, you'll get to see some of the beautiful scenery the group got to see on the trip to Kuranda. Kuranda for your information was the main town that raw materials were taken to from further inland. The materials such as gold, lumber, hides, etc. was then put on the train to Cairns where it might be shipped out to other places in Australia and abroad. Kuranda is now something of a tourist town. They have a butterfly farm where you can see a number of beautiful butterflies. They also have a number of craft and souvenir shops. The other thing I remember of note was a very pretty Aussie girl who was selling sausages here. I bought one (it was all right) but the main thing I enjoyed was the sight of her. I didn't try to chat her up because I didn't see any point in it. I was only going to be in Kuranda 90 minutes or so and never expected to return. 90 minutes is not enough time to properly get to know someone so I let it go but, I do remember the girl from Kuranda.

Above are pictures of two waterfalls. The one on the left is a small one the train passed by. The one on the right is a massive waterfall that sadly has hardly any water going over it. Where did the water go? It was diverted and sent underground to power a turbine to generate electricity. Further down the river, the water is sent back into the river and continues along it's way. Supposedly when it rains really heavily, you can see the large waterfall in all its glory. It's said to be very impressive.













The picture on the left is me with my Aussie hat on and Harvey. The picture on the right is our absolutely fantastic tour guide Jann Elphinstone. The picture doesn't do this wonderful lady justice. She was an absolute marvel. She managed repeatedly to get 19 people and herself through a number of airports without losing their luggage or them. She managed to see off every member of the group on whatever optional tours they signed up, even at the most ungodly of hours. And lastly, to the envy of any woman, she managed to look fashionable no matter what time of day or night it was and on very little sleep at times. There is no question that this wonderful woman made my tour of Australia an absolute delight. Later, when I got to visit Auckland, I and others who went on the Auckland add-on tour missed her greatly. We didn't know it but, we had been spoiled rotten by her and had a rough time coming back to earth afterwards. This July, when me and Harvey went to New York City, we missed her again. We had to find our own transportation to the hotel, had to find where to board the Grayline bus tour of NYC, and had to find the theater where we saw "The Producers." If she had been there, all those things would've been taken care of. If you can take a tour with this wonderful woman, by all means do so. You won't regret it.

After getting up to Kuranda, we had to get back down. There were three ways you could do that. You could either a bus or the train back or you could take the Skyrail. What the Skyrail is are cars that ride along cables that hang from very high towers above the rainforest. At times, you are 130 feet above the ground. It's an awesome way to see the rainforest outside Cairns. At the end of the ride, whether you want it or not, you get your picture taken. They later offer that picture for sale. By this time, I was getting totally tired of having every dang restaurant and boat we rode on take my picture and then try to sell it to me for a hefty mark-up. I would've normally passed on this one except that Harvey must have gotten caught by surprise by the camera because he looks like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. I think he looks hilarious and I subsequently bought the picture. I don't have it posted because Harvey hasn't given permission to post it and I won't do so out of consideration for his feelings.

After we finished the ride on the Skyrail, we returned to the hotel. You had the choice of doing what you wanted or going on an optional ($29 Australian) tour to the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Center. Jann recommended the center and I decided to go. The center is very nice and you get to see aborigines play the didgeridoo (a very long wooden tube like instrument) which is native to Australia. The didgeridoo player was very good and could do some really impressive stuff with the instrument. You also got to see some aborigine food, learn how it was prepared, learn how they made fire, learned about their religion, and saw some of their dancing. Afterwards, you could visit their giftshop where you could by some Aborigine souvenirs. I think thats where I bought a Aborigine handkerchief that I plan to put in my family's Christmas grab bag this year.

After that, it was back to the hotel again. I went off by myself into Cairns to rustle up some dinner. To my delight, I found a shop that sold Donner kebabs just like in England. Donner kebabs are kebabs made of a hamburger like meat that is slowly cooked sideways on a spit. They then shave the meat off, and stick it in a pita with lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and hot sauce. It is very cheap though greasy eats. I was in greasy bliss. I also tried a Bundaberg rum and Coke and found it very smooth. I wasn't impressed with rum though I think it is better than cognac. Cognac to me tastes like really bad tasting cough syrup. I can't understand why people would drink barring trying to look all sophisticated.

The next morning, those in the group that "really" wanted to do an optional hot air balloon flight got to get up at 4:15 in the morning and returned at 9:00 a.m. I passed and enjoyed the pleasure of sleeping in. Around 7:30 or so, I strolled down to breakfast. After that, I went back to my room, got my bags, hauled them down to where the bus driver could pick them up, settled my bill with hotel, and finally boarded the bus. The bus subsequently drove us back to Cairns International Airport where we left for Alice Springs for the next part of our Australian adventure.

Stay tuned for Alice Springs where you'll get to learn about witchety grubs (I actually ate some cooked bits, first time in my life I've eaten a real BUG), what an Australian bar-b-que is like (damn good eats mate!), and learn out about the Royal Flying Doctor Corps. Cheers! :-)

Cairns - Part II

A couple days ago, the lady known as A2^ sent me a comment. She said that she was going to put climbing the Sydney harbor bridge on her list of things to do before she died. I replied that another thing she would want to put on that list was scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef. Why? First, it one of the largest living organisms in the world. It is so big that astronauts in space can see it. Second, it has one of the largest collection of creatures on this earth. The number has to run into the thousands. Third, it is a place where man can enter a totally alien world without having to go into space or beyond. The underwater world is totally different from our own. Even with all our technological advances, it remains one of the most inhospitable to man. You have to be very careful in this world otherwise it can kill you in any number of ways. So, if you are searching for adventure, diving the Great Barrier Reef should fit the bill. The picture here is of me in my diving gear, doing a safety stop under the pontoon platforms the Quicksilver Company had at the Great Barrier Reef.

The Quicksilver Company collects its passengers two ways. You travel to Port Douglas by either by boat or bus. In our case, a bus pulled into the hotel parking lot Wednesday morning. We summarily boarded and got to enjoy a very scenic half hour drive to Port Douglas. Port Douglas at one time competed with Cairns for the principle port in this region. Eventually it lost out and for a while, it became a ghost town. When I visited here in 2004, it had a population of over 5,000 which sometimes swelled to as many at 15,000 due to tourists. Its primary business now is tourism.

The boat we travelled out to the Great Barrier Reef in was a big catamaran. The boat must have held at least 250 people plus diving equipment and enough food to provide everyone who went out, a fantastic buffet lunch. While enroute, people got to decide what they wanted to do. You could lay on the platform and get a nice tan. You could snorkel or you could scuba dive. If you were going to scuba dive, you had to either show your certification card or fill out a form stating where you got your certification and with whom. You also had to listen to a short refresher course on diving and take a quiz afterwards. Once you arrived at the pontoon platform, you had to promptly suit up if you were going to dive. The diving equipment was well organized and you went from bin to bin collecting your equipment.

Once you were ready, you entered the water with a bunch of other people and checked out your equipment. One thing I've seen time and again are people who claim to be better divers then they actually are. This time would be no different. We had a guy who claimed to be a great diver and he ended up holding the group for over 5 minutes because he couldn't get his bouyancy right and sink. At last, the instructors helped him make it to the bottom and we began our dive. The sea life was dazzling. The instructors pointed out things of note like particulary impressive fish or having us touch an anemone. They really do sting. They also made a video of us that you could purchase later though I decided to pass on it. I think it only had about 3 minutes of us actually diving in it.

We finished the first dive without incident, did our safety stop, and then changed our tanks out. I signed up to do a second dive and got paired up with a guy that had only dived 9 times. I wasn't thrilled with that. I prefer to dive with experienced divers since they know what they're doing. I have over 80 dives to my credit but before the reef dives, I hadn't dived in over 2 years. I still knew what I was doing but, I wasn't super confident. I'd never dived the Great Barrier Reef before and it is a good thing to dive a new area with someone who is experienced in that area for at least a couple times. I wouldn't have that luxury here. Fortunately, the second dive was equally uneventful as far as diving problems go. I did get to take my first underwater photos which are what you are looking at on this post. The company sold cheap underwater cameras and I decided to try it out. To my delight, the photos came out reasonably well.

Overall, I ended up having an absolutely awesome time. It made me wish to do more diving when I got back to Maryland. Unfortunately, where I live is at least 3 hours driving from the coast and the water is very cold here. The only time you can dive with a wet suit is during the summer months. I did get my dry suit qualification but, I haven't cared to spend the money on one yet. I don't know how much I would use it. Hopefully, I'll get to do more diving in the future.

Those who do two dives out on the reef never get a chance to try the excellent buffet lunch the Quicksilver company provides. Fortunately, the company takes this into account and the diver can arrange for them to put aside 3 plates! of food for them when the reboard the boat. I got to eat the food on the way back to port and it was delicious. The drive back to Cairns was also very pleasant. We drove along the coast and got to see lots of seashore and water. When I arrived at the hotel, to my delight, our tour guide Jann Elphinstone invited me to join her for dinner in Cairns. She also invited Harvey and that is when I got to know him somewhat better. The three of us had a dinner at a food court in town and had a nice chat. I ended up having some lacklustre Thai food and a rather poor smoothie. Jann also recommended I try Bundaberg Rum (the local rum which was supposed to be very good) and XXXX beer. I found the rum was all right though I confess, I'm not real keen on hard liquor. The beer was also good. The one nice thing about trying the two was I slept like a rock that night though I might've been a little worn out from the diving too.

The next day would be our last day in Cairns. We would get to ride the Kuranda train, see the town of Kuranda, ride the Skyrail back to Cairns, and visit an aborigine cultural center. It would be another very full day. Stay tuned for Cairns - Part III.

Cairns - Part I

The minute we arrived in Cairns we could feel the difference between it and Sydney. It was warmer and the humidity was greater. It definitely felt tropical and it was. It was the first time I'd gotten to see land in a tropical environment. I was finally able to imagine what Hawaii looked like barring the muddy beaches in Cairns. We didn't go directly to our hotel the Tradewinds Esplanade. Instead, we went to a wildlife park where we were introduced to some of Australia's nasty and cute critters. The picture you see here is of an estuarine or salt water crocodile. These creatures are vicious and BIG. As I remember, the one in the picture you're looking was 8 feet long and they get bigger then that. It is these crocodiles that have killed people up in Australia's Northwest Territory. The territory where real Crocodile Dundee's would've lived.


One of the cute creatures we got to meet was a koala. For a fee, you could do as this member of our group is doing. You got to hold a koala and get your picture with him or her. I don't remember if they told what its sex was. After watching others in our groups get their picture taken, I had to give in and do it myself. It was kinda neat. The koala is very cute and it was nice experience barring the stain I got on my shirt from holding him/her.

We also got to meet some kangaroos. They were pretty laid back as you can see. We could buy food to feed them with if we wished. They were so use to humans that we could walk right up to them and pet them.





Another group of creatures we got to see through glass tanks were 10 of the most venomous snakes in the world. Interestingly, I believe Australia has 6 of them. Those were creatures I was glad I didn't get to meet any closer.

After the wildlife park, we drove to the hotel and checked in. I tried out the pool and have a nice swim. After that, I got changed and explored Cairns. It was a nice city and more quiet then Sydney. It was also a lot smaller. It had a lot of touristy shops which reminded me of Destin, Florida which is a big tourist town in Nortwest Florida. When I was stationed in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, I did a lot of scuba diving out of Destin. My scuba diving would come in handy later at Port Douglas (earlier I reported this as Port Arthur, I got the name wrong).

As I walked along the esplanade next to the beach, I took this picture. As you can see the beaches aren't very pretty and it is a tropical region i.e. the palm trees.





In the evening, the group had dinner at the hotel. The dinner was noteworthy because we got to try barramundi (an Australian fish), crocodile, and kangaroo. As I remember, crocodile actually tasted like chicken and kangaroo was a bit dry. Supposedly, it didn't have a lot of fat in it. The dinner ended up being very enjoyable.

The next day, we'd go to Port Douglas where we'd take a catamaran out to the Great Barrier Reef. I'll tell about that in Cairns - Part II.

Australia Tour and Lord of the Rings Sketchbook

To be more accurate, I dug out my 2004 organizer. One of the main ways I keep track of things I've got to do or have done is by keeping them in my organizer. This has been priceless later when I've needed to check on them. The only fault with this system is I'm not the most ardent chronicler when it comes to entering stuff into it. As an example. From mid-May to mid-June of this year, I stopped making entries. I was still busy doing things but I suspect I was so caught up with various problems and I didn't feel like making entries. Fortunately, for the Australia trip, I was very accurate recording what I got to do.

Corrections on the Sydney leg of the adventure. First, I arrived in Sydney at 10:50 p.m. I believe we arrived at the hotel at 11:45 p.m. Then we had to up around 6 a.m. Surprisingly, everyone managed to get through the day fine.

We also did a one hour boat cruise of the harbor where we got to see some of the expensive homes on the harbor. And they were expensive though I think that is typical of any place. Waterfront property is never cheap.

On my own, I took a taxi to the Sydney Hard Rock Cafe where I bought myself, my sister, and a friend a city specific t-shirt. What these are are shirts that show highlights of that particular city. In Sydney, it was the opera house and the bridge. In Paris, it is Arc de Triomphe and the Champs de Elysees. They are pretty cool t-shirts, especially compared to the standard ones with the Hard Rock Cafe ball and the name of the city under it. I've heard they've finally come out with one for London and I hope to get it when I visit there next summer.

Lastly, the restaurant we had our welcoming dinner is called the Waterfront Restaurant.

On a totally different subject, yesterday I found out that the artist Alan Lee will be doing a quick book signing promotion tour promoting his new book "The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook." Alan Lee and John Howe had enormous influence on Peter Jackson's movies. The grey hat that Gandalf wears came out of a drawing John Howe did. Also, the appearance of Bag End was heavily influenced by him. Alan Lee had enormous influence on the scenes of Rivendell and in the extended version of The Fellowhip of the Ring, you can see him touching up the set with paint. Below are the cities, dates, bookshops, and times when he'll be at them. I sorly wish he would make a stop in Baltimore or Washington D.C. so I could get a book signed by him and get to meet him. He is an awesome artist and fascinating person. Cheers!

New York - Saturday October 22nd

Books of Wonder - 12 noon

Philadelphia - Monday October 24th

Friends select school - 7 p.m.

Atlanta - Tuesday October 25th

Peachtree Battle - 7 p.m.

Austin - Wednesday October 26th

BookPeople - 7 p.m.

Denver - Thursday October 27th

Tattered Cover, LoDo - 7:30 p.m.

Salt Lake City - Friday October 28th

Borders Books, Murray - 7 p.m.

San Francisco - Saturday and Sunday October 29th and 30th

Saturday - Book Passage, Corte Madera - 7 p.m.
Sunday - The Booksmith - 2 p.m.

Seattle - Monday October 31st

University Bookstore - 7 p.m.

Portland - Tuesday November 1st

Powell's Books, Beaverton - 7 p.m.

My source for this information was the Aint It Cool website: www.aintitcool.com

I would call these book stores before you go to make sure there haven't been any changes since this post in order to avoid any chance of disappointment.

Lastly, it was reported in the press that the Ontario government has loaned the equivalent of nearly 2.5 million U.S. dollars to the stage version of the Lord of the Rings. (I'm still wondering how they're going to pull this off in just say 3 or 4 hours. Any longer and, they're going to lose their audience.) The government justified the action saying all the money the show would probably bring into the province when the show opens in Toronto in February 2006. That is dependent on the show being a hit. The government doesn't seem to think the show is going to be a stinker as so many other theatrical shows are. It remains to be seen if they are right. If they are, it will be a smart move; if they aren't, they'll take even greater heat then they're taking right now.

Visit to Sydney, Australia

I don't know about other folks but I know I would get tired of seeing just text so on this post I'm including a couple pictures I took while in Sydney. In one of the pictures, you can see people climbing the bridge. The other is of the very famous Opera House. We actually took a tour of the Opera House and it is an awesome building. The different shell like roofs are supposed to represent sails. The building is unique and has become a recognized symbol of Sydney. For your information, opera is not the only kind of show you can catch here. It is a place of concerts, other theatrical productions, and is also used for conferences and wedding receptions.


Now, when did I do what. Sunday, we saw the aquarium, did the city tour, I believe we also did the Opera House tour, and then had a our welcoming dinner. Quite a long to do for a bunch of people that had just crossed the Pacific but that is how they scheduled it. (At the end of the tour you get to fill out a feedback sheet where you can praise the people who did a great job and slam those who didn't. One point I made was the lack of time to adjust. From the time we arrived, we were on the go.)

The welcoming dinner was at a restaurant (whose name I don't remember) by the Rocks which was a very notorious place in Sydney. It was originally the place where the first settlement was built in Sydney. Later, it became the haunt of prostitutes and thieves. Now, it is very cleaned up and is a very popular tourist destination.

It turned out there were 19 of us in the tour. For the most part, everyone was married. The only exceptions were three Puerto Rican girls who all knew each other and two bachelors (me and Harvey). We had a nice welcome dinner and began to get to know one another. We came from all over the country and had a couple wonderful Canadians from Toronto named Fraser and Denise. Fraser was a retired labor arbitrator and Denise was still doing it. They called themselves the token Canadians but they were anything but token people. They really added to the pleasure of the tour.

The next day was a free day and that was when I did the bridge climb. Later, I explored around the harbor. I checked out a couple malls, ate a forgettable lunch at McDonalds, took the harbor water taxi back to the wharf where the aquarium is, and watched the Australian Independence Day fireworks at night. I didn't stay up too late because I think the time change was finally catching up with me.

The next day, everyone packed their bags, had breakfast, checked out of the hotel (the Darling Harbor Four Points Sheraton, very nice hotel), and boarded the bus for the airport. Our next stop would be Cairns.

Australia Adventure Begins

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.