The Terrible Tribble with Three Sisters, Australia (February 18, 2016)

Reading Rating: Grab ‘n’ Go Coffee
      
Davin Reporting!  

    Having achieved our objective of seeing the Jenolan Caves, today we headed back to Sydney.  First, however, we had to try to finish cooking our French toast.  When we aborted last night, we had at least another full loaf of bread left.  So, first thing this morning I set out to drive 20 minutes to the grocery store to grab a spray cooking oil– of course it was in the absolutely last aisle of the store I looked in– and then drive 20 minutes back.  Meanwhile Kristin was packing up our bags.  When I returned with the spray oil, Kristin finished cooking up the French toast while I packed up the car.  Things went smoother on the cooking front this time with actual spray oil!  (Kristin Interjection: “THE RESULTING FRENCH TOAST BREAKFAST WAS GLORIOUS IN ITS ABSOLUTE DELICIOUSNESS! MmmMmmMmm– a wonderful taste of home!”)

"Yum."

    Because of the French toast marathon, we didn’t get on the road until around 10:30 AM.  On the way to the Three Sisters we took in the beautiful scenery of the Blue Mountain area. Some of it look oddly familiar, and the rest looked like the green rolling hills of Europe! 

Could be San Diego in Spring

Green like in Europe

Interesting Bike Storage!

     After a few hours drive, we reached the Three Sisters, and Scenic World.  This whole area seemed like a bit of a tourist trap to me.  For some reason, Kristin had us walk halfway across the town from Scenic World to the Three Sisters viewpoint, when we could have just parked outside.  (Kristin Interjection: “We were already on the RIGHT side of the canyon, and Google claimed it was an 11 minute walk, AND Davin always says that the Google time estimate is at slow people speeds! How was I supposed to know it was uphill (and it was HOT out)!”)   

First you can't see...

...and then you can!

The Three Sisters

The gorgeous view!

    The Three Sisters is basically three connected rock formations.  While mildly interesting, I don’t know whether it was so amazing as to warrant the dozens of tour buses that were parked at the viewpoint. (Kristin Interjection: “The view out over (another) Eucalyptus Rainforest was quite striking! I couldn’t care less about the three rocks. There was of course a native aboriginal legend about the rocks, but if you want to see beautiful rock formations, go to the Grand Canyon! In my opinion, the three rocks were just one step up in impressiveness from the Arches we keep seeing at various ocean ports.”        

Look at all the Tribbles!

Sadly wouldn't be able to get them through quarantine, so I said goodbye to my tribble friend.

    Apparently the reason we went to Scenic World was to ride the world’s steepest train. (Kristin Interjection: “It’s in the Guinness Book of World Records. And I have a thing for trains!”) You start out at the station leaning back at a weird angle, and then end up sitting flat once you go over the side.  (Kristin Interjection: “It was awesome! It was almost like an elevator. Sadly it’s only like a minute long ride experience! Hahaha!)  There was also a skyway and a cable car, where we got some more views.  Arguably there were some decent views from Scenic World, but overall I wasn’t that impressed with it.  If you’re going to go to the Blue Mountains, I think you should really just go hiking and skip the touristy stuff.  (Kristin Interjection: “Well, it didn’t really take that long, so you might as well drive to the Three Sister’s Lookout point. But, don’t pay for Scenic World unless you HAVE to be able to say you’ve ridden on the World’s Steepest Train!”)

View from the World's Steepest Train

    The final event for the day was a concert of Beethoven’s Fifth at the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House.  In my opinion, Beethoven’s Fifth is possibly the best symphony ever created, and it’s also one that I’ve had the experience of hearing at the San Diego Symphony.  The symphony was decent, and I think the orchestra probably played the piece fine, but I ended up coming away rather underwhelmed.

    While it was interesting to attend an event at such an iconic landmark, I did not feel like the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall’s acoustics were actually that good.  Granted, we were in the cheap seats, but I am suspicious that there wasn’t some favoring of form (appearance) over function (actual acoustics) in the construction of the concert hall.  During the tour we were informed that they actually had to install “acoustic clouds”– clear plastic or glass dishes– above the orchestra pit to prevent the orchestra from hearing an out-of-sync echo.  That really does not suggest the design of the building was truly optimized for performances, and I felt like it showed during the concert.  (Kristin Interjection: “I really felt that the concert sounded muffled and you should really be able to hear crisp sound from every seat of the venue regardless of price paid. That’s what is so great about Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego, you can hear from all of the seats, but the BEST acoustics are actually at the top back– right where we always sit in the cheap seats! That’s MY kind of Symphony Hall!”)    

Jenolan Caves, Australia (February 17, 2016)

Reading Rating: Grab ‘n’ Go Coffee

Davin Reporting!
   
    Caves!  Caves!  Caves!  That is the order of the day.  We’re at Jenolan Caves, which is an extensive underground complex which was discovered back in 1830.  Different cave chambers can be toured, and it’s recommended to do three in one day... so, of course, we’re doing four!  Four caves is pretty much the maximum it’s possible to do in one day due to the way the tours overlap.  I have to admit that after doing two caves I had some reservations as to whether four would be too many, but in the end it was just about right. 

In between caves, we worked on eating our lunch (in 10 minute intervals)

    It’s not really practical to describe the caves.  It’s more something you need to experience for yourself.  Unfortunately, I had to do a lot of walking up and down and ducking underneath low passages and this constantly triggered my dizziness problems, but I persevered.  Overall, I will simply say that the Jenolan Caves were among the best caves I have seen.  I am on the fence as to whether the caves here were better than Postojnskajama in Slovenia, but they are really entirely different experiences, so it doesn’t really matter. (Kristin Interjection: “It wouldn’t be worth visiting Australia JUST for Jenolan Caves. So, whether to go to Postojnskajama or Jenolan really depends on which continent you happen to be going to on vacation. Then: Definitely go see the caves!”)

    The cabin that we’re staying in has a stove, which we had planned to take advantage of to make Mexican food.  We had purchased all of the supplies we needed with the exception of ground meat, which we had no way of keeping cold.  That meant that after leaving the caves we had to find a grocery store.  Originally, my plan was to drive to a store that I thought was 45 minutes away, but later discovered it was closer to two hours away!  Fortunately, we found a store in a smaller town only about 20 minutes distant, which had the supplies we needed and was (barely) still open.             

    By sheer serendipity the store also had a twelve pack of Dr. Pepper, which was amazing– it’s incredibly unusual to find even single cans of Dr. Pepper in Australia, let alone anything more!  We surmised that someone had placed a special order for the pack, and never came to pick it up.  I suppose the store is probably lucky that we came along for it, otherwise who knows how long it would have ended up sitting around! 

    The cooking of fajitas and tacos went pretty much according to plan.  The tacos ended up being pretty close to San Diego authentic, while the fajita spice was not quite right but still ended up being decent.  Both meals were a nice change from the fare we’d had on the ship and in Australia. (Kristin Interjection: “The tacos turned out EXACTLY right, and were DELICIOUS!”)     

    Where things took a turn somewhat for the worse was when making French Toast.  A few days earlier we had purchased a canola oil spread to use on sandwiches.  While it turned out to be terrible for that role, we thought we could at least use it to grease cooking pans, since it shared the same base as cooking oil.  With that in mind, Kristin began cooking away, using several pots and pans.             

    Well, about 30 minutes into the French toast production, I happened to look up and discovered in alarm that the entire cabin was filled with a dark haze!  Even worse, the ground had begun to get oddly slippery from the vaporized canola oil filtering out of the air!  All cooking was immediately stopped, and we threw open all of the windows so the smoke would dissipate.  I was a bit concerned that we might have caused an extensive problem for ourselves.  Fortunately, the bedrooms and bathroom were unaffected, and a quick cleaning of the horizontal surfaces within the main room and kitchen seemed to solve things. 

    The excitement of the day wasn’t quite over yet.  While in the shower, I looked up at the bathroom wall and was horrified to catch sight of a horrendous spider!  The spider’s body was about the size of a quarter, and its overall circumference including its legs was just smaller than the palm of my hand!  We managed to catch it by having Kristin hold up a pan, while I blew on it so that it fell off the wall.  (Kristin Interjection: “D didn’t warn me that he was going to blow on the spider. He just did it and it went flying, and I was screaming, and it was pure luck that it fell right into the pot!”)  When we released it outside, the spider actually crawled away sideways like a crab!   

    Overall that was definitely an eerie experience, and it prompted us to spend the next 20 minutes searching around the cabin for any other worrisome beasts.  Nothing else ominous turned up, although I did find a large millipede in my bedroom that had apparently died some time ago (its empty exoskeleton fell apart upon touch), as well as a lost woman’s earring!  (Kristin Interjection: “I was so freaked out by the experience that I hallucinated that D snuck up and poked me in the side. I jumped and screamed and said, “DAVIN!” and he said, “What?” from all the way on the other side of the room!”)               

Kiama Blowholes and Illawara Rainforest, Australia (February 16, 2016)

Reading Rating: Afternoon Cuppa Tea

 

Davin Reporting!

    A few days ago we decided to break up our time in Sydney by exploring some of the nearby countryside.  Today we started that journey by picking up our rental car from the Hertz location in Artarmon.  I’m a “gold member” with Hertz, since it’s free with your AAA membership, and it makes renting cars much easier.  No longer do I have to sit through the 20 minute spiel of total BS, saying, “No, no, no, no...” to the two dozen or so optional add-ons.  I just show up and get the car and go.  Also, unlike some other rental car companies, Hertz (so far) hasn’t tried to screw me over with add-on penalty charges after turning the cars in (we’ll see how long that lasts). 

    Like most days, we had an ambitious schedule (probably too ambitious).  First on the itinerary were the Kiama Blowholes.  A blowhole is basically an underwater cavern on the ocean that is partially submerged.  At the front the blowhole is open to the ocean.  In the middle there is an opening in the top for water and air to be ejected, and at the back there is a sealed chamber.  When waves come in the front, it compresses the air in the chamber, and then when the water recedes a high pressure wave of air and water is ejected from the blowhole’s top, accompanied by a whoomping sound.             

Kiama Large Blowhole

    The force at which the water and air is ejected depends on how strong the wave action is on that day.  Under the right conditions, (a big storm coming in from the right direction), the large Kiama Blowhole can create a spout 100 feet high, and so it holds the record as the world’s biggest blowhole.  On the day we were there, there was at least enough wave action that we got to see the blowholes in operation.  It was interesting to see, but not particularly mind blowing either.  We visited both the big and the little Kiama blowhole. (Kristin Interjection: “At the large Kiama blowhole, a little four year old girl who screamed every time the blowhole went off was the only thing that gave it an atmosphere of intense EXCITEMENT. She saved the whole experience!”)

Kiama Small Blowhole

    After leaving the blowholes, we drove a short distance up into the mountains to see the Illawara eucalyptus rain forest.  Here a company called Illawara Fly had constructed a large walkway which allowed you to walk among the treetops.  The name Illawara Fly came from the flying squirrel, since that was the perspective you experienced by walking among the trees. 

    They had also created a zipline system between the trees, which was notable for not harming the trees.  The zipline platforms were synched tight around the outside and did not penetrate more than a few centimeters into the bark.  The zipline holds the record as “Australia’s highest zipline experience”. Unfortunately, that is the only good thing that can be said about it. Overall, the zipline experience was, bar none, the lamest zipline experience I’ve had in my life. (Kristin Interjection: “I agree!”) There were only three fairly short ziplines and you spent most of the time just waiting around for the rest of the group to go– not worth it at all! (Kristin Interjection: “The website advertised it as an ecological tour that would teach you about the rainforest. They literally told us nothing about the rain forest. They only explained how their zipline clamps don’t cause permanent damage to the trees!”)

    The treetop walk was decent though.  Eucalyptus trees can grow up to several hundred feet tall and it was interesting seeing them from a higher perspective.  We also found it surprising that this was classified as a rain forest, since our experience back in San Diego is more that eucalyptus flourish in fairly dry conditions– apparently that is not always or only the case.  Although the platform was obviously completely stable, it was also amusing, and perhaps a bit eerie, how some sections swayed as you walked along them. (Kristin Interjection: “We did a simultaneous jump on the platform to see how much it would sway! For some reason I really couldn’t, and still can’t, wrap my head around the idea of a Eucalyptus forest being an awe-inspiring forest. It’s just so weird to me.  I think I feel like Eucalyptus are an non-native and therefore an undesirable species of tree! Obviously, it belongs here in Australia, but I just don’t really consider a Eucalyptus tree to be beautiful. The landscape taken as a whole was definitely beautiful though!”) 

    Now you may be wondering why I said at the start that the day might have been too ambitious.  Well, as usual everything took longer than expected, putting us hours behind schedule.  After quickly buying dinner at KFC– interesting aside: in Australia they don’t sell buckets and they seem to emphasize chicken nuggets and chicken sandwiches rather than the individual pieces (Kristin Interjection: “I had another language barrier experience when they asked if I wanted “serviettes” and I said hesitantly, “I... don’t think so?” but then they opened a drawer and I saw they meant napkins!”) – we began our drive to the Jenolan Caves area.  Ultimately, this meant driving four or five hours through narrow, winding mountain roads in the middle of the night, dodging kangaroos and wallabies (at least half a dozen animals were sighted, if not more).  It was going on midnight when we finally arrived at our lodgings.

    Every night we plug in a combination of our various devices: 3 phones, 2 laptops, 1 heart rate monitor watch, and 1 tablet.  We don’t have enough plug-ins off our converter to plug everything in at the same time, but that has not been a problem.  Here is a picture of the resulting mass of plugs. I think you’ll agree it is a bit of a Frankenstein monstrosity.  In fact, depending on the location of the outlet, the weight of the plugs can cause it to fall out.  When that happens we have to support it with something– in this case the electric water boiler.