Postcards from Australasia #12

We're wrapping up the first part of our transit through the State of Victoria. We visited a few very rural towns including Orbost while looking for more of the wildlife, the highlight for us was a visit to Tarra Bulga NP where we had a close encounter with a Superb Lyrebird:

From there it was Wilson's Promontory (the Prom to locals) under heavy clouds and persistent rain but we stayed in a lovely place at Sandy Point.  We risked the weather to visit the Prom and check out the famous beaches:

We walked the wildlife trail during a break in the weather seeing windswept Emu, wombat out in the daylight (and not roadkill!) amongst others:

Phillip Island was a real highlight, especially the Penguin Parade (no photos allowed however). Then on to Mornington Peninsular and the stunning Cape Schank where a little Echidna did it's usual, hide my snout under a bush and whatever it is i can hear will go away trick. Cute! 

Point Nepean was a cracker too and the sunshine and warmth a relief. 

Then it was up to the Dandenong Ranges, staying in Emerald, visiting the Botanic Gardens seeing New Holland Honeyeaters feeding, Proteas flowering and enjoying the views down to Melbourne. 

Now it's on to Tasmania, a place that i have wanted to visit for well over 40 years now...

Postcards from Australasia #11

Landing back from Lord Howe was a bit of a shock, from a sun drenched tropical island to the middle of a windy Sydney city then an hour or so drive down to Woollongong for an overnight before heading further south to Eden. 

Eden sits atop the Ben Boyd National Park and what a wonderful place it all is:

A particular highlight for us was eating dinner in our motel suite, watching whales pass with one exhuberent young humpback jumping for joy on the way, absolute magic!

We visited and explored Ben Boyd shower-dodging, finally the weather had caught up with us having had only one rainy day since early June.  A particular highlight was watching the Shearwater migration past Green Cape Lighthouse, literally thousands of birds of a number of different species, cruising past in the howling gale.

The lighthouse itself looked quite serene perched on the prominontory:

The next day we made our first foray into the State of Victoria, driving down to Mallacoota to explore around there.   The best spot was the camping ground and picnic area (this is becoming a bit of a theme on this trip).   While we were watching some birds a young Koala clambered down a tree pretty much next to us and then slimbed up another, changed its mind and crossed the road before climbing yet another tree:

I was trying to combine getting my camera, taking pictures amd stopping the odd car too to keep the animal safe (there's so much roadkill in Australia is's acutally very sad).   Another magic experience, as too was seeing this young Black (Swamp) Wallaby, looks like something chewed its ears.  It was munching away on something while trying to stay in cover:

From Eden, which we'd go back to again without hesitation, we drove inland and somewhat back on ourselves to Canberra, Helen paused for a snap in front of the old Parliament Building:

After checking-in to our hotel we walked down to visit Floriade:

It's a mini Kirkenhof with added stuff around it.   We spent an hour there before heading back.  The next day we touristed around the city, visiting the wetlands, the Australian War Memorial and ascending the Telstra Tower (in a lift).   The views of the surrounding landscape are amazing and thankfuly you're behind 10-foot fences which made it feel a little safer:

That night the sunset was spectacular as the sun descended below the rain clouds and behind the hills:

From Canberra it was on to the Snowy Mountains in Kozciusko National Park.   We took full advantage of a sunny morning to walk from the village up to Dead Horse Gap and towards the snow:

It was fun walking in the snow but a bit dodgy too, a lot of it was hollow with melting which made walking hazardous.  Rather than complete the shorter loop we therefore returned the way we'd come.   After the Snowy Mountains it was time to head back to Victoria and to turn the corner West.

Postcards from Austalasia #10

Sydney is an iconic city in so many ways and rightly so.  We were excited to visit to see the principle sights, including the Harbour Bridge:

And the Opera House:

While in Sydney we took advice and visited the Botanic Gardens, Cockatoo Island, Circular Quay and other spots:

We also had a brainwave and decided to check what was on at the Opera House.   Cue over-excited patrons enjoying Gustav Holst's The Planet Suite by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, sat in the circle at the Opera House, what an outstanding life experience, only moderately enhanced by the very reasonably priced local fizz.

We also travelled outside and around the city, in particular visiting Royal National Park, which hosts and outstanding sandstone coastline:

We also enjoyed a vegan tasting menu at Alibi and a vegetarian tasting menu at Yellow.  Helen preferred the former, me the latter.

From Sydney is was time for a complete change of tack, a visit to Lord Howe Island some 2 hours North-East of Sydney and a long way from anywhere else.   

It's a beautiful island, owned mostly by the descendants of the original settlers:

It's host to some amazing species of bird including Sooty Tern:

The local race of the Golden Whistler:

and White Terns:

Shockingly however it's also lost eight species of bird in the 200-odd years it's been known to man.   There's a ninth, the Lord Howe Woodhen that is hanging by a thread, we didn't see this as all known birds are currently in a zoo while they conduct a huge island-wide rodent eradication programme (which is supposed to take-out the introduced Masked Owl too and will probably also take out the supposed-to-be-there Kestrels).   Politics wise it had a bit of the Wicker Man to it with the locals suspecting the government of NSW of plotting to remove them, calling us foreigners when they didn't think we'd understand them, denying the visible impact of their ancestors' actions, etc.

That all said, it is a magic place to visit, to stay and to explore.   We pretty much walked our legs off climbing the Goat Cave ascent and at the other end of the island, Transit Hill, with this view:

The sunsets over the lagoon were impressive too.  We did enjoy and relish our visit to Lord Howe Island.

We did also look forward to moving on, via a return flight so Sydney, a random night in a hotel in Wollongong and then it was time to head further South.