blogalicious: Summer is gone

It’s been forever since I’ve written a blog post or put up pictures. School is back in session, and pretty routine, except for the torturous mornings, which I hate (and I think I’ve already learned that I should always be a part time employee. I’m so much happier that way). Summer ’09 was full, and as a result, not as restful as ’08, but enjoyable and further cements what I like to think of as a “new way of life” (never working in the summer, or rather: working on vacationing).

I think in the future we have to limit our trips to 2 weeks because there’s a point at which packing and moving all of your belongings every night becomes a bit tiresome. It also became apparent that I am no longer 22. Traveling is just sort of different now that I’m entering middle age. For example, 13 hour overnight bus rides just don’t do it for me anymore (we decided to institute a 6 hour bus ride maximum). Hostels are also now firmly in my past. We stayed in a private room at a couple of nice ones, but we are done with room sharing. The last night in Darwin we stayed in a shared room, and I was awakened at 6 am by my BFF, who had already moved all of our stuff out and was ready to go anywhere except back to the top of our bunk.

Another noticeable difference is my growing love for tours. I really like to be told where to go, what I’m seeing and what I’m eating. Not making daily decisions just makes things so much easier. Plus, I don’t remember things I read in books and on placards. I want someone to tell me something (I guess you’d call that auditory learning). In any case, after returning from Australia, we went to Oregon for the Shakespeare festival (so awesome, as always) and then I went to Boston for over a week. I have no pictures of those trips. I do, however, have lots of pictures of the flora and fauna (and tourists) of Australia!

We went snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef (life goal accomplished!) our first day. Though I have to tell you, when accomplishing a life goal, you’re overcome with some momentary disappointment at having nothing to look forward to. It usually takes a few days to formulate a new one. Next summer: safari! This was inspired in part because we read somewhere that the mammalian explosion happening in Africa is unique. Flourishing times!)

The reef biome is teeming with all sorts of stuff. In this picture you can see the fish feeding near the people going in the water.

The reef is about 20 miles offshore and looks sort of green from the top, but it was vast, complicated and beautiful. Only an underwater camera can do it justice.

A large tree in downtown Cairns.

The second day there, we went to the zoo, as I had a very painful sunburn and didn’t want to think about going into the water again. Koala!

Here I am, feeding a Kangaroo at the zoo. They are very docile and sweet.

Like a pet!

So the most shocking discovery was that I had no idea how monstrous and large salt water crocodiles could get. The zoos in the US just don’t do them justice. They are massive. My friend is to the left for scale.

This is a blue kookaburra, which has a laugh that is described as a “menacing chortle” (zoo words, not mine).

The cassowary, one of many Australian things that can kill you (with it’s hooked claw!).

Church on the beach (now there’s incentive).

Boats at Port Douglas. This is where we went snorkeling our second day.

Exposed reef. This was a much more beautiful reef than the first day. They also had awesome lycra wetsuits that made one feel like a fish.

Car ferry into the Daintree rainforest and Cape Tribulation.

In the rainforest! Walking around on elevated platforms and seeing things.

You could walk up this structure to be at the top of the canopy.

People for scale.

He likes to read plaques and then tell me about them.

I like to take self-portraits.

He’s looking at a bird.

These green ants were everywhere and are much prettier than boring old black ants.

We stopped at a fruit orchard and had homemade ice cream on their lush property.

We camped at an awesome deserted beach (Noah beach) for a night.

The next morning was the first of our (many) dawn cruises. I guess it’s OK to get up early on vacation. This one was a Daintree River cruise that focused on birds.

Two frogmouths. They sound and look like another animal.

Some kind of egret.

The Daintree River.

Being in the tropics also means seeing lots of sugar cane.

This dude spent his life (and trust fund, I assume), collecting bugs and then built this wooden house to store them.

Walking Stick

Me, holding a leafy walking stick. I guess people keep them as pets.

The best night of the trip was staying at another awesome fruit orchard in the middle of nowhere. It got insanely dark and we ate the most delicious fruit I’ve ever had. They just served us big bowls for breakfast (sadly, I have no pictures).

In front of our tiny cabin.

Ancient reef that lived during a hotter earth.

The rainforest meets the ocean in this part of the world.

Cathedral termite mounds near Kakadu national Park (aboriginal lands).

The escarpment was important to the Aboriginal people—they lived on top during the rainy season.

We saw a lot of rock art, which was up to 40,000 years old.

This is sunset at Ubirr, the rock art site. There are fires in the distance that are intentionally set by the aboriginal people. The landscape is always burning during the dry season and it’s still oppressively hot.

We went on an awesome day tour of the aboriginal lands and stopped at a billabong.

This is an aboriginal art center. I guess the government acts as a patron to aboriginal artists, so they get paid to make didgeridoos and other things.

Another early cruise! This time, we were looking at crocodiles.

In the outback, mail is delivered by the bus lines into big drums.

This is a boab tree. The white people used to cut out the middle and use them as jail cells for aborigines.

In Kununurra, we went for a really nice 6 am hike (you have to finish all outside stuff by 10, or else it gets too hot).

Then we took the aforementioned 13 hour bus ride (complete with kids throwing up on our stuff) and arrived in Broome! (Orlando Bloom had vacationed there earlier in the summer).