Sydney, The Rocks

The Rocks area of Sydney, down by the harbor, is where it all began. This is where the convicts were first put to work to build their own housing. Small alleyways, some original buildings. I separated from the walking tour, and did my own art tour. I went to the Craft Center of NSW, over 100 years old, now housed in a World Heritage site, an old coroners court building, on George St, above the quay. I brought out my spindle to spin and met Gwen, who had done all the restoration weaving for theGovernment House.

I then went to the Contemporary Art Museum, which was mostly closed. I wandered here and there, into every Aboriginal Gallery I found. I took off across the Domain ( kind of like Central Park) and went to the State Library. It is a beautiful building. I went to a portrait show there, super paintings by contemporary Australian artists.Had lunch at the cafe there. I sat inside, as the breeze was pretty cool. I watched people eating outside, sharing their food with the Galahs....rather like we share with the seagulls- whether we want to or not! I then trucked on too the Gallery of New South Wales to see their world famous collection of Australian art to find that they had just closed that section for renovation! I did see a smaller show of some of the best works from Arnhem Land. Extraordinary barks in Xray style. I walked all the way back to thehotel (A very long walk)! Wandered through the Victoria Building, full of very chi-chi shops. Fashion in the big cities of Australia: very high heels; skirts a bit shorter; los & lots of leggings, with tight butt cupping tunics. Dogs- small, remarkably small. Many more small terriers than labs.

We arose at 3:45 am to fly to Christchurch, New Zealand!

Birds, birds, birds

At Birdworld in Kuranda, an Indian Blue Ringneck. A star finch and Chestnut Mannikins Cassowary Cassowary Some kind of dove doing some kind of display. There were 3 of them in a row, spreading their wing feathers, cocking their tails, contorting their forms. They did not appear to be distressed, did not appear to be performing a diversionary display nor a mating display. It was more like quiet sunbathing. Extended Senegal Dove sex. This pair was blocking the sidewalk for quite a while. Made me sing the old Beatles song "Why don't we do it in the road!" a rather large parrot. Smaller parrots...maybe .

The bower at Wetherby Station

We had a dinner at Wetherby Cattle Station, northwest of Cairns, in Far North Queensland in the township of MT Molloy. While it is now listed as Mount Molloy, originally the MT mean mining town. I will tell you more later about our experience at this station in the rainforest. One of the most exciting things was seeing the bower bird nest. This bower bird, who we never saw, collects seashells and red plastic for his palace. The nest was about 18 "tall and covered quite a bit of real estate! This bower was in their yard, along the fence next to the road that led into their property. They said that there is another bower being built out in the field by a younger male. They also said that when they are missing odd things from the kitchen, they go check the bowers.

Crocodiles, Koalas,Captive Kangaroos and Birds

We drove north to a Hartley's Crocodile Adventure, a crocodile farm/ wildlife center where I petted a koala (Yes, too cute for school), watched crocs being fed, learned the diff between fresh and salt water crocs (one will kill you, one will not.) Salt water crocs have sensors that allow them to feel the buoyancy of salt water. Fresh water crocs do not and do occasionally wander into salty areas and get in trouble. The park is a small part of the operation. The Hartley's do raise crocodiles for the meat and skin market. They feed them chicken heads...partly for our benefit, I'm sure. But the crocs do like them.

The koala fur is actually a little rough! They are careful to cycle the Koalas through the photo sessions to reduce the stress. Touristy? yes. But still cool.

I felt very bad for the captive kangaroos! They are nocturnal animals, so the likelihood of seeing them in the wild was low. But, that day at the Croc farm was the first day that the rest of the tour was with us. The Outback segment was a "pre-tour" of only 15 people. By Crocodile day, we were joined by at least 20 jet lagged people, too many of whom chased the kangaroos around the pen to feed them! The red kangaroos were especially shy. Feeding these kangaroos was a way different experience than feeding the wallabies in Alice Springs. That experience did not feel coercive or abusive. This one did.

Despite my misgivings about the captive kangaroos and the petted koalas, Hartley's appears to be a well run park, involved in maintaining not only the crocodilian species but the dry rain forest it is situated in.

The birds were great! Black necked stork! Kookaburras in and out of the koala cage. Black swans A Tawny Frogmouth! They blend utterly with the trees and have the largest mouths! I think it was here that we saw the Nanking Night Heron. At some point I will do a detailed blog about birding in Australia.

The desert and camels on the way to Uluru

We left Alice Springs by buswatching for kangaroos> which we did not see, and feral camels, which we did see. In addition to the wild camels,we stopped at a camel farmwhere I experienced my oneand only camel ride that I expect to take in my lifetime, even if I do return to Egypt! Oy, it was rough! While I am sure that one can adjust to the lumpiness of the camel gait, it would be easier if the stirrups were properly adjusted. We no sooner took off than the stirrup flew off my right foot, making it really difficult to control the movement of my body in the saddle. The drover did not hear me, or chose not to hear me (hysterical woman, etc.). I finally gained stability by stretching my stirup-less foot out staight, with firm, locked knee. Had a few back twitches for days afterwardsThe trip across the desert was beautiful and austere.We saw birds of prey galore.We stopped at the huge salt lake I had seen from the airplane, climbing a sand dune for the blinding view.

Desert Park in Alice Springs

In and about Alice, we saw our first kangaroo, crested pigeon, gallahs, and magpies and it was warm enough for the gum trees to give off their delicious eucalyptus scent. We visited the extraordinary School of the Air and the Alice Springs Telegraph station.

I spent much of the second day at the Desert Park. Only the morning was scheduled, but several of us stayed longer since the afternoon was free. The birds of prey demonstration was spectacular. Do I remember the names of any of the birds? NO!!! But I bought a guide and marked them off. I so got into watching the birds in Australia. What struck me first, before their uncommon beauty, was the birdsong: new and different. There were, of course, magpies and bower birds, honey somethings and rainbow bee-somethings; gullahs and black cocatoos; buggies. I also attended about an hour lecture by an aboriginal guide, named Doug, at the park about survival skills of the aboriginal peoples. Doug was from the Arrende people of Central Australia. The returning boomerang was not used here, nor was the didgeridoo. The returning boomerang is an east coast style, used in bird hunting to flush out the water birds. Boomerang technology is over 10,000 years old. the Arrende boomer is heavier, curved at one end, designed to break the leg bones of kangaroos and emu...and people, in war time. Spears were also used, the heads attached with fresh kangaroo achilles tendon that dries and shrinks to hold the point tightly. They also used spear throwers to extend the range, nulla nulla or club with a quartz head that could also be thrown. All tools were multipurpose, for hunting, gathering, preparing the ground to sit etc. Women carried spears, digging sticks, a coolamon bowl and maybe a dilly bag. Winnowing was key because some husks were poison. the dilly bag was used for collecting as well and for rinsing out toxins. A quote from his father about the importance of the stories,"If you know the song, you know plenty." He described women as of equal importance to the survival of the group, of equal but different power within the group. He talked about marriage rules...too complicated for me to remember...that prevented inbreeding. Breaking the marriage rules would result in banishing or worse. Children are raised by the "Aunties," a group of adult women including your birth mother and her relations (relations in Aboriginal groups are different than for us...but think aunts, great aunts, some cousins depending on the marriage relation). He said that children "run feral" until 6 or 7 years old. Initiation and scarring is still practiced to some extent. He said it teaches discipline ...and each scar represents a lesson: you look at it and you remember.

We got a ride home fron the Desert Park with an Aussie named Michael who had a huge shotgun shell hanging from his rearview mirror.. Born in Italy, but raised in Australia,He was in Alice on holiday with the Masons. He lives normally in Adelaide. It seems that the Freemasons were in Alice Springs to celebrate the raising of a statue to a pioneer by the name of Stuart. Stuart was a good sort, kind to the natives. But, politically correct types had a fit about placing the statue in the town square because the statue was holding a rifle. The man Stuart never used the rifle to subdue the natives. So, the town council has taken it under advisement and has not raised the statue as yet. So, Michael stayed to party anyways. Among other things, he said he was a conservationist. I asked what that meant. He goes out to the cattle stations to shoot feral cows. When the stations changed over mustering from horses to helicopters, they discovered up to 25% more cattle who had gone feral. Or maybe he meant camels? They are a problem as well. Ran into him later that evening at Bojangles Pub.