Oz Adventure--Week 1

Well, we're back to the real world after our adventure down under. It's 1:35 am here and I can't sleep since my body still thinks its 3:35pm.

We had an incredible time in Australia. I didn't have much internet access after we left Sydney so I didn't get a chance to share much except a little info about Claire's accident. Here's some of what happened after Sydney and some general thoughts. If you missed the Sydney posts, they're here--

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

We left Sydney Sunday morning, June 28 and drove about 3 hours west into the Blue Mountains. We found our way to the Megalong Valley Heritage Center where we stayed in a rustic, but comfortable room before our horseback ride. It was pretty chilly, maybe down into the lower 30s that night. We had dinner at the Ivanhoe Hotel in Blackheath that night and it was a lot of fun. They had someone on piano and washboard playing old ragtime songs and everyone was clapping and swaying and having a rollicking good time. Later, a young man (late teens or early 20s) played a few songs on the piano and he was quite good.

Monday morning came and it was time for our horseback ride. We saw a few kangaroo and lots of Sulphur-crested and Rosella Cockatoos around the stable in the morning. We had a great breakfast and then went out to start our ride. Claire was quite disappointed when they told her that we had to wear helmets. She was looking forward to riding without a helmet, as we did in Wyoming in 2005, when Claire was only 7. But, being the good rule-followers we are, we all donned our helmets and thank God we did.

We were assigned to our horses and fitted on our saddles. Claire and I were each given a horse that Luke, our guide, said would be willing to run. We both wanted to have a chance to canter, or maybe even gallop, while we were out. Claire has ridden a lot and takes weekly lessons so we presented her as the most experienced of the group and she got the horse with the most horsepower. Alan was on an draft horse and Amy's horse was Seddie, a shortened version of sedative referring to the drugs the horse had to be given to quiet it down in its early days at the stable. (Note: add Seddie to the list of Aussie words that are created when a longer word is shortened to its first syllable and an "ie" or "y" added to the end.)

The ride out was nice, the horses well-behaved and the scenery was gorgeous. We had one little trot and a quick canter on the way out and everything was fine. We crossed the Cox's River and encountered a semi-wild herd of cattle led by an imposing Brahma bull that Luke said he didn't trust because he was a "mickey" bull and not used to having humans around. So, we turned around and started heading back.

We got to one section and Luke asked who wanted to canter, and, of course, Claire and I did. We had a good little run of a 150 yards or so. Luke watched each of us at the start of the run to make sure we could handle it and Claire was behind me, since she was the more experienced rider. Claire mentioned to me that she lost her stirrups on the run so I reminded her to keep her weight on the balls of her feet and her heels down so she didn't slip her foot through her stirrups.
We took off again for another run up a hill and it was great. The horses quickly went from canter to gallop and we were flying. We found out afterward that our guide's horse had participated in a recent episode of "Top Gear" in Australia where it had raced a Porsche Cayenne across some of the same area we had been riding, so we knew Willow was fast...and our horses were keeping pace. (Here's a clip from the show, which, coincidentally enough, aired that night while we were in our hotel room. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvJXLqLTc5A The relevant stuff starts at about 2:00. The video shows a lot of the scenery we rode through. The ranch where they finish is where we stayed Sunday night and rode from on Monday.)

About a minute into the run, I hear Claire yelling, "Stop, stop, stop" and as I'm yelling ahead to Luke, I see her horse run past me without Claire. I started yelling "Claire's off, Claire's off". Luke says he was going to chase Claire's horse and he takes off. Of course, my horse wants to follow and I desperately wanted to get back to Claire because I knew Alan and Amy were a minute or so behind us.

I finally got my horse turned around and I see Claire lying on the side of the road about 100 yards behind me. I'm calling down to her and she jumps up and starts yelling, "I'm ok, I'm ok." Alan and Amy get to her about the same time I do and we see she has a bad cut under her eye. Amy gives her a scarf to hold against her cut and shd and Alan start giving her a neuro exam--"What's your birthday? What's your dog's name? How many fingers am I holding up? etc" They couldn't ask her what day it was since none of us knew that...hey, we were on vacation and I only knew what day it was by where we were and what we were doing. "Hey, we're horseback riding, must be Monday."

Luke made it back with Claire's horse and we began the hour-long ride back to the stable. We got to the stable, had lunch, Alan and Amy cleaned up Claire's wound as best they could and then we were off to hospital in Katoomba. Great experience, wonderful people and top-notch health care. (There is another post about that experience.) We left the ED and went to our hotel to prepare for our day of rapelling and camping out the next night.

Met up with our guide, Corky, early the next day at the offices of River Deep Mountain High in Katoomba. We were worried the night before because the wind was howling all night but he assured us that their rapelling site, or abseiling as the Aussies call it, was sheltered and there wouldn't be a problem. We took off to a site under Scenic World and rapelled down 5, 15 and 30-meter sites in the shadow of the famous Three Sisters rock formation .

After lunch, Craig took us on a 4WD tour to some of the sites around the area and gave us a crash course on the history, flora and fauna of the area. He's a really informative guy who has memorized the latin names for the animals of the region. He's written them on index cards and puts a colored dot on them when he's seen them in the wild. He knows a lot about the plants and geology, as well.

We ended the day in their safari camp way out in the Megalong Valley. Took a walk near the camp and saw some Gang-gang Cockatoos . Craig taught Claire how to start a proper fire and we had a great dinner with some good wine. Craig showed us the Milky Way and Southern Cross. We were worried about being cold out in the bush but the sleeping bags on the stretcher beds worked great and the tents were phenomenal. None of us were cold even though it got down into the 30s and was quite windy. We could hear the wind rush up through the trees and then, "bam", hit the side of the tent but we never felt it.

We were awakened at about 6:30 am by what sounded like 100 Kookaburras but was probably only 10 or so. We took a walk around the bush near the campsite and came back and had breakfast. Saw a few kangaroo and wallaby. Then we packed up and headed back to a hike near Leury.

The hike was originally supposed to be through the Megalong Valley but when he heard we had been horseback riding there, he changed the itinerary. Boy, did he change the itinerary. We went to this hidden trailhead that his company maintains and descended 150 metres following a water course into the Jamison Valley. It was very technical hiking with a lot of water, rock and mud. Some sections had us on a 3-4 ft. ledge with a 20-ft drop below and a rope bolted into the rock face for us to hold onto. We made it down and then started coming up around some beautiful sandstone cliffs overlooking a canopy of eucalpyptus trees. It was a hard 7 miles but the scenery was beautiful.

We left Katoomba on Wednesday afternoon and headed over to Mollymook and transitioned into beach/wedding mode. The drive over was pretty harrowing. Too bad it was dark because I'm sure the scenery would have been beautiful. We sure went on some windy, mountainous roads.

I'll cover week 2 in a post later tonight.

Here's a link to the photo album with the best photos from trip--
http://katseyeview.shutterfly.com/606

Heading Home

Well, we're on the way home..stuck now in O'hare since our flight was delayed by 2 hours. By the time we get home, we will have been in airports and on airplanes for more than 24 hours.

Trip was great. I'll post more tomorrow, including more photos. We haven't had a real internet connection since we left Sydney more than a week ago. Claire's injury didn't slow us down at all, other than the multiple trips to the "chemist" looking for antibiotic ointment only to find out its perscription only in Australia (where you can buy codeine over the counter.)

Rappelling, hiking and camping was great--saw the Milky Way and Southern Cross in the midst of a black Australian sky; the beach was nice, wedding was beautiful including the dolphins that kept swimming back and forth during the ceremony, almost like they were watching. Reception in Canberra was fun and we finished the trip with a lovely dinner at the home of my friends Tammy and Paul Mullins--beautiful home, great food, wonderful friends and awesome dogs.

Will reset the body clock tomorrow, collect all the animals and prepare for a return to the corporate world.

Claire Update

We're on the road from Katoomba to Mollymook. I'll post more details later but Claire is doing pretty good. Got 5 stitches but she enjoyed the laughing gas. We went rapelling the next day and she did great. We camped out last night and went on a 7 mile, highly technical hike today. Coincidentally, looks like she'll have a 1-inch high, horseshoe-shaped scar under her right eye.

Nationalized health care anyone?

Claire took a faceplant from her horse at a full gallop. No head injuries but a bad cut below her left eye and some bad scrapes.

Just arrived at hospital in Katoomba. Walked in the ER, registered in 3 minutes and back to see a nurse less than 10 minutes after arrival. Clean waiting room, no chaos, nice people.

Score 3 pts nationalized health care, 0 pts private health care.

$80 Australian per service rendered--doctor visit, Xray, etc. Score another for NHC. Its now NHC 4, PHC still big fat zero.

And she's back with 5 stitches. Doctor visit, stitches, laughing gas, total of $80 Australian. Final score NHC 5, PHC Nil.

megalong

Out in Megalong Valley...chilly night, bright stars, red wine, warm beds. Ahhhhhhh.

Sydney--Day 3

It was another great day today. Got up and went to breakfast at Queen Victoria Building that was originally built in 1898. Has a beautiful clock tower that, according to a website "displays a series of mechanically moving tableaux of British kings and queens every hour on the hour. This "exhibition" is heralded by loud trumpeters and ends with the beheading of Charles I." Dang, I saw the clock but missed the beheadings.

Went to the Sydney Tower to get more sky high views of Sydney. The 1,000 ft high tower was pretty cool and we did an OzTrek kind of a virtual tour of Australia similiar to the Soaring attraction at Epcot.

Took a quick tour of Paddy's Market in Chinatown but not enough to do it justice. We had to take off to get out to Manly to have dinner with Brent and Cindy. I met Brent at the Teradata Partners conference the same year that Luke and Monica met. We took the ferry to Manly and he picked us up at the wharf. Then, we were off for a quick tour of Manly. As he was taking us to see the statue of where Duke Kahanamoku introduced surfing to Australia, we saw a film crew from National Geographic channel filming the beach. We looked out and there was a pod of southern Right Whales a few hundred yards off the shore. We watched there for a few minutes and Brent had us hop into his truck and we booked up to another point to get another view.

Then, we went to his house for a "barby". They have an incredible house thats up a steep driveway and then up another 2-1/2 flights of stairs to get to the front door. We had what Claire called "The First Annual Treehouse Meatfest". He cooked a few steaks, a bunch of sausage and a whole chicken. It was totally yummy. Brent's son, Xander, fell in love with Claire. He was sitting on her lap after dinner and she was scratching his tummy and he had this look of contentment and then leaned up and kissed her. I think she needs to spend her summer vacation as a nanny for the Kirkbys.

Amy and I were commenting about how all our Australian hosts know so much about their country's history. We ask lots of questions and they always know the answer. Of course, knowing my Aussie buddies, they could very well be bullshitting us.

PS Yes, we are aware that Michael Jackson died. Alan predicted the cause of death right when it was announced when he said, "He's today's Elvis without the bloating."

Photos are here-- http://katseyeview.shutterfly.com/539

Day 2

Another incredible day in Sydney yesterday. Got up and took a nice walk down to the harbor and had a great breakfast at one of the waterfront restaurants. Amy was fascinated at how much better looking the Australian seagulls are than the ones in Florida. She's convinced there's some seagull makeover facility here that smooths and whitens their feathers.

After breakfast, we split off from Monica's family and went to buy Claire a fleece for our trip to the mountains. Coincidentally, there is a two block area near our hotel filled with outdoor equipment shops. The guy at the shop was warning us about dropbears that live in the mountains. They are a particular type of vicious koala that likes to drop out of the trees onto unsuspecting humans below and attack them. The laughter of a nearby woman confirmed my suspicion that this was one of those ficticious stories designed to frighten the uninitiated. We had a good laugh.

We walked about a mile from the hotel up to the Botanic Gardens. Were able to see the ANZAC Memorial, St. Mary's Cathedral and Hyde Park on the way. The Botanic Gardens were awesome. They had signs encouraging visitors to touch the plants, walk on the grass, hug the trees....so we did. Claire especially enjoyed hugging various trees. There was a huge ficus tree that reminded us of the one in our backyard in Florida that she especially enjoyed hugging. It was like finding an old friend.

The coolest part of the gardens was totally unexpected. We were in one area and heard what we thought were a lot of birds nearby. We went to investigate and it wasn't birds, it was a huge colony of Flying Fox bats. Our whole family is fascinated by bats and we especially love the Flying Fox. I got a photo of Amy pointing to a sculpture of a Flying Fox while we were at the zoo the day before. We stood there watching them for a long time.

We walked around the Opera House and then it was time to meet Monica et al for the Bridge Climb. WOW, what an awesome experience. Got suited up in our jumpsuits that are specially designed to blend in with the bridge and the sky so motorists on the bridge are not distracted and our special safety harnesses that keep us attached to the bridge at all times. We did the climb and got to 440 feet above Sydney Harbor overlooking the city. Our guide, Dee, was great. Short, feisty, funny woman in her late-20s (?) sporting a modified faux-hawk hairstyle. She really kept us laughing. It was our group of 10 and two other single climbers, including a teacher from the Dallas area who was here chaperoning a group of 40 5th and 6th graders. This was his one excursion on his own and was a gift from the parents of the kids on the trip. Pretty cool.

Finished the climb and we were all starving. Luke, who is an awesome tour guide, took a quick poll of food preferences and decided we needed to go to Phillip's Foote (http://phillipsfoote.com.au/ ). Its a restaurant where you grill your own food--go to the counter, order your cut of steak, chicken, fish, etc., and head to the grill. It was a lot of fun and really good after a day of excercise. Lots of good food, beer and conversation.

Luke's son Stewart sat at the table with us and that kid is one of the most engaging boys I've ever met. He told us several jokes that, told by someone else, wouldn't be that funny but Stewart's charm and style just makes you laugh...even the one that had to be the world's longest joke.

We finished dinner, took the train back to the hotel and crashed.

Here's the photos-- http://katseyeview.shutterfly.com/473

Day 1 Reflections

Just some random thoughts about Day 1--

While looking at the HUUUUUGE Kodiak bear at the zoo, Claire said, "I find that animal really scary but I'd still love to go over and poke it." Reminds me of my relationship with my boss' boss at work.

Amy always loved Flying Fox bats but since owning her large eared dog, has developed an even greater affection for large eared animals in general. We wanted to see the dingos since we think her dog is a direct descendent from them but they moved them to their other zoo. She was very disappointed.

Saw Bilbys, Echidnas and Sugartail Gliders at the Sydney Zoo but couldn't get pictures since they're nocturnal and they don't allow flash photography. We kept waiting for the Tasmanian Devil to start its tornado shaped swirl and make the growling-babbling noise. Obviously, we all watched too many Warner Brother cartoons growing up.

It was cute to see the Australian school children in there school uniforms at the zoo. The children with the large, canvas bush hats were especially cute. They all had some sort of headwear embroidered with their school name but we liked the ones with hats like this-- http://www.hatsonline.com.au/epages/whitelabel1.sf/en_AU/?ObjectPath=/Shops/hatsonline/Products/AH702/SubProducts/AH702-0010

Its always risky to link your travel plans with other families, especially when you don't know some of them very well but we're having a blast with Monica's family. Monica and I have traveled together in many situations (she and I to conferences, her traveling with my family to Gator football games, etc.) but I'd only met her brother once before and never met her sister. No worries, cause we're having a great time. The laughter last night at dinner over something as mundane as a missing order of garlic bread was proof.

Today, its the bridge climb with all 10 of us--four Koontzes, three Woolmers, one soon to be Woolmer and two Meyers. Have to get suited up in special jumpsuits, take a breathalyzer, go through a simulator and then trek up 340 feet in the air onto the top of the structure above the Sydney Harbor Bridge at twilight. Can't wait!

We Made It

Well we made it to Australia and have made it through our first day. There were no real travel glitches but the 14-hour flight from LA to Sydney is loooooooong, especially in coach. Claire woke up halfway through and saw our progress on TV and announced in an excited voice "We're halfway there!" Sorry kid, I can't get excited about only having another 7 hours of flight time left. I started putting my shoes on before we landed and discovered my ankles had swollen and I had "cankles". Not very attractive but they've recovered now.

We got here, met up with Monica and then her sister Mary Pat and brother Mark. Got to our "serviced apartment", then Monica went off to work and we went to the zoo. Navigated the subway and ferry and got to the zoo around 11. Beautiful place with lots of animals indigenous to Australia. Seriously, I thought an Echidna was a character from Sonic but its a real animal.

I'll post up pictures later. We're off to dinner now and then sleep in a real bed. It's been too long since I've done that.

Photos are added. Here's the link-- http://katseyeview.shutterfly.com//396

On the plane for Sydney!!! #fb

Made it to LA. Time to meet up with Amy and have a nice dinner before heading to Sydney after our 5-hour layover. #fb

It appears stylish fanny packs are popular in Europe. Must stop saying fanny before Australia (bad word.)

Vacation is official...I am having my first beer!

Down Under Itinerary

OK. we're in final prep mode for the Australia trip. Thought I'd share the itinerary for what I know we're doing--

Tues 10:30 AM--Leave Columbus

Tues Eve--5-hour layover in LAX followed by 14 hours in coach on United. UGGGGHHH!

Thu 6:15 AM--Arrive Sydney. Meet up with Monica and her stateside relatives who are arriving at the same time.

Thu Daytime--Try to stay awake maybe hit the zoo http://www.taronga.org.au/taronga-zoo/plan-your-visit.aspx

Thu Night--Blessed sleep in a bed

Fri Daytime--Art museum which is always a marathon with Amy. http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/ It is located next to the Botanic Gardens so those of us who don't spend 8 hours in an art museum can do something else. http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/welcome_to_bgt/royal_botanic_gardens

Fri Evening--Twilight bridge climb across Sydney Harbor bridge with Monica, Luke, Tim. Stewart and Monica's family. http://www.bridgeclimb.com/theClimb/BridgeClimb/sydney_climb.htm

Should be able to get a photo similar to this--




Any activity that requires you to take a breathalyzer with a lower allowable BAC level than driving a car in Ohio should be exciting.




Sat Daytime--Not sure just yet. That's the time to do things we discover once we get there.


Sat Evening--Ferry ride to Manly (cute beach town, photo below) and a cookout with my friend Brent and his family.
















Sunday--Leave Sydney for Megalong Valley. Overnight at Ranch House.

Monday--Day long horseback ride through the Cox's River--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrOBVMbd6_M

Tuesday--30m rappelling trip (or abseiling as the Aussies call it) near Three Sisters and a 5 mile hike. See stuff like this--


















And this--

Tues Night--Camp out somewhere near this stuff.

Wed AM--4WD trip to see stuff we missed on foot.

Wed PM--Down to south coast and Mollymook Shores where the wedding will be held.

Thu AM--Trip to Pebbly Beach to see the Roos and the birds (rosellas, king parrots, galahs and yellow-tailed black cockatoos) --http://www.southcoast.com.au/durras/index.html and take a visit to Emily Miller Beach which my Australian friend Paul says is the most beautiful beach in the world.

Thu PM--Start hanging out with the wedding party.

Fri AM--Morning activity somewhere around South Coast.

Fri PM--Wedding

Sat AM--Leave Mollymook. Maybe go to Pigeon House Mountain for a hike. Another site recommended by Paul. http://www.southcoast.com.au/pigeonhouse/index.html

Sat PM--Check out Canberra.

Sun AM--Maybe relax....yeah, probably not.

Sun PM--Dinner at my friend Paul's house outside of Canberra. Can't wait to meet his two German Shorthair Pointers, Lincoln and Ishka. Ishka and I are friends on Facebook.

Mon AM--Drive back to Sydney

Mon 2:45 PM--Leave Sydney

Mon 11:30 PM--Arrive Cbus.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!! Figured this would be the best way to let folks see our adventures down under. Stay tuned!

Oh, and that thing in my last post 3-1/2 years ago about using the blog to record my transition from Florida to Ohio...be glad I didn't record it. Depressing doesn't even get close and I'm JUST starting to come out of that funk. No one would have wanted to read that.