World Peace. Whirled Peas.
World Travel. Whirled Travel.
Travel sometimes feels that way.
Singular wit.
Join me for second month in Australia; travel down east coast, Queensland, along the Great Barrier Reef, from Cairns, Townsville, Brisbane, Sydney, and Canberra before flying to Japan for cherry blossom season.
Some elements of the trip appear in “The Daily” including a mishmash of topics. Photo gallery has trip images, captions available when viewed in slide show mode.
FRI 01 March: ride motorbike across town in morning; owner drops me off at Hobart (Tasmania) airport; mid-day flight back to Melbourne. Early morning, long day, fatigue catches up with me, wilt like a flower by sunset.
Wake up rested, feel human; walking tour of Melbourne, and visit Queen Victoria Market, Australian Center for Contemporary Art, Ian Potter Centre, to view aboriginal art, and National Gallery of Victoria, displaying Degas, Modigliani, Picasso, and several Pissarro (impressionism). There were some bean bag chairs in the children’s area; sit down, and my body crashes for thirty minutes. Wash machine at the hostel; clothes are grateful to take a spin.
SkyBus to airport, pick-up rental car for the day, Toyota Corolla. Drive 300-miles to visit the twelve (sandstone) apostles on the coast of the Indian Ocean, and Great Otway National Park. Technically, there are only nine sandstone apostles, and one collapsed in 2005, leaving only eight. Return along Great Ocean Road, where sandstone cliffs hug the clear blue waters of the Tasmanian Sea.
TUE 05 March: 12-hour train, 550-miles, Melbourne to Sydney; not a tourist train, mostly locals. Terrain is dry,, grassland, duff, fallen tree limbs; likely erupt in flames with single match. Terrain becomes more green, as approach Sydney. Hostel is across the street from Central Station. Why did I not just fly from Melbourne to Cairns.
Slow start to the day, sandwiched between 12-hour train, and, early morning flight to Cairns. Light rail to Sydney Harbor, return to Botanical Gardens, and, circumambulate the wishing tree, before returning to the Art Gallery of NSW. Re-visit Matisse, Picasso, and Modigliani. Grandmother gifted a series of art books; as a child, often fascinated by Modigliani’s unique style; long, angular faces; artist never painted eyes (“I will paint your eyes when I find your soul”).
THU 07 March: 3am bus to Sydney airport, easy ride, tap-on, tap-off, short walk to domestic terminal. 6am flight to Cairns; transfer from airport to city center, check in early at local hostel. Weather is hot, humid, and uncomfortable, mid-point between equator (0-degrees) and Tropic of Capricorn (23-degrees south).
Day trip to outer banks of Great Barrier Reef. Morning session, intro to scuba diving with instructor; afternoon session, snorkeling. Cleared dive mask, cleared regulator; difficulty clearing my ears; water in my ears for two weeks. Overcast skies, turbid water, coral reef not particularly vibrant. Choppy water, waves flood snorkel with sea water. Observe brain coral, parrot fish, and small schools of fish. Experience mostly underwhelming; wonder if it’s simply an opportunity to fleece tourists. Perhaps experiences are distributed along a bell curve, most experiences are average.
Primary reason to visit Cairns, was to travel Kuranda train and gondola through the national park and gorge. Rain forest region, heavier than normal precipitation shuts down the train for the week that I’m in town; wanted to visit Kuranda more than the great barrier reef. If one travels long enough, the best plans go sideways, opportunity to practice acceptance; “The measure of success is how we cope with disappointment” (Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, 2011). At the very least, appreciate turning alarm clock off for a week, but, still awake by sunrise.
THU 14 March: south-bound train to Townsville; disrupted all week due to heavy rain and track flooding. Grateful to move on without last-minute or heroic measures; train passes numerous sugar cane plantations.
Wake early without alarm; visit nearby Magnetic (Maggie) Island via ferry; first ferry at 5:30am, beat the oppressive heat and humidity. Hike the national park, Arcadia trail, offering great views of Horseshoe Bay. First hiker on the trail, clear spider webs, with white streaks across black t-shirt; hopefully, just the web and no spiders. Queensland has the highest snake population in Australia; hope that python doesn’t drop on me; I’m too skinny, and likely, not worth the effort. Had opportunity to rent dual-sport Honda 250cc motorcycle; limited safety gear, open helmet, no gloves, no boots, and declined. Island isn’t densely populated, but, only takes one accident.
Hike to summit of Castle Hill, pink granite monolith, offering views of Townsville at sunrise, followed by walk along the strand boardwalk. City itself is underwhelming, but, wanted to break-up the two-day train from Cairns to Brisbane.
SUN 17 March: depart 4pm, overnight train to Brisbane, arrive next morning 10am; slept on the train, but, not comfortably, train compartment quite cold. Exit the station and wake-up with a macchiato; body crashes at sunset.
Local bus, one-hour south of Brisbane, to Daisy Hill Koala Centre, located in Eucalyptus forest; grateful to see koalas that are not being exploited for the benefit of tourists. Koala is a marsupial, like the kangaroo; females have a pouch to hold the baby (joey). Queensland has northern koala, 10-15 pounds, light grey. Victoria has southern koala, 15-20 pounds, dark grey. The koala, mostly nocturnal, eats one pound of Eucalyptus leaves each day, difficult to digest, and sleeps up to 20-hours per day.
Local train, one-hour east of Brisbane, to historic village of Ipswich. Features one-hundred year-old buildings; likely resembles Brisbane from one-hundred years ago. Visit local art museum, respite from the constant din of travel.
Brisbane art museum, one of the finest in the country; wonderful display of high-quality Aboriginal paintings. Laundromat close to hostel, clothes are grateful to swim a few laps in the wash machine. Walk back to hostel, pass local (secular) Zen Center, and drop-in for Thursday night meditation, for whatever ails the mind.
Wanted to visit Sunshine Coast (3-hours north) and Gold Coast (1-hour south), but, no reasonable public transportation; not a huge fan of surfing or the beach, but, would have appreciated seeing the clear, blue ocean.
MON 25 March: walk to train station before sky opens and it begins to rain; Brisbane transit terminals exist in a state of deconstruction and upgrade, in advance of 2032 summer Olympics. Depart 6am, 14-hour train to Sydney, 600-miles; train car directly behind diesel engine, vague sense of diesel fumes, low-grade headache most of the day. Tedious, and wonder why I don’t just fly, but, would miss seeing Victorian-style homes with corrugated metal roof. Pleasant surprise, arrive on-time; hostel located next to train station.
Low-key day, fatigued; visit Apple store, iPhone 15 FaceID fails multiple times a day, requires shutdown/restart; no hardware, firmware, software issues, no explanation; under factory warranty until October. Walk through the Glebe, lovely neighborhood, intimate, unlike the rest of the city; purchase short story anthology at used bookstore, preferred genre, matches my short attention span.
WED 27 March: morning train to Canberra, Australia’s capital. Sydney and Melbourne “argued” over the designation, so Canberra was designated the capital in 1913, as a “planned city.” First day of autumn, one week prior, the deciduous trees subtly change color to yellow and red; wildfire smoke permeates the air.
Visit Parliament, National Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and National Art Museum, which displays many Australian artists, but also work by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and René Magritte. City isn’t particularly tourist-friendly and wrap-up two months in Australia with a quiet, whimper.
Hostel has Netflix, and watch Oppenheimer (for the first time), twice, two nights in a row. Trinity test scene is surreal, and its intensity magnified without heroic music, and simply, the quiet sounds of Oppenheimer’s breathing.
SAT 30 March: city bus to train station; train from Canberra to Sydney, all too pleased to move on. Contract stomach flu; sleep during the entire trip, buy several bottles of Gatorade, check into Sydney hostel, and straight to bed. Recover after three days in bed, as Dr. Google suggested, and before ten-hour flight to Japan.
Cost:
Cumulative travel costs, during past 97-days.
Lodging: $2,685 total | $28 day
Transport: $4,108 total | $42 day (plane | train | bus | ferry | taxi)
– – Flight | Sydney > Cairns: $255 ($80 per flight hour)
– – Train | Townsville > Brisbane: $127 (18-hours | overnight)
Food: $219 total | $2 day
Other: $6,952 total | $72 day (FX | ATM | visa | tourism | RV & moto)
– – Car rental | Melbourne: $90 ($55 rental | $35 petrol)
– – Great barrier reef | Cairns: $150 (scuba & snorkel)
Total: $13,964 total | $144 day | $52,500 annualized
Conclusion:
Appreciated opportunity to experience Australia for two months. Always enjoy meeting Australian tourists, but, found Australian culture itself, bit underwhelming. Definitely return to Tasmania, for at least one month, and perhaps, travel on the Ghan (train) from Darwin to Adelaide through the red desert. Large cities, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, convenient transfer hubs, but often felt suffocated and claustrophobic. Fly to Japan in April for cherry blossoms.
Travel is a bit like a survey course; some areas want to pass through quickly, other areas, want to spend more time; never quite get the balance dialed-in; often suggest that travel is iterative; get it right the next time.
Travel the world, explore unfamiliar countries, people, and cultures, but, sometimes, discover more about myself than anything else; perhaps what I discover is something new, perhaps what I discover is frightening and disturbing.
garthmonroe 