Vacation over. We have our own place now. "Fully furnished" it is not quite-- our new apartment does not have a bed mattress (but it does have a bedframe), a refrigerator, a microwave, a toaster, a television, dishes, pots and pans, cooking utensils, silverware, or curtains. So, we've spent the last two days in the Sydney rain trying to find and buy these things, preferably delivered.1
It takes time, however, to shop and buy and deliver, so last night we were without a bed and without a refrigerator or any dishes. The place is furnished with a sofa bed, so we slept on that last night. If D had any reservations about spending AUS$200 on a mattress that we would only use for five months, sleeping on the sofa bed last night cured her of them. So much for having a decent bed for guests... we might have to purchase an inflatable mattress anyway. Today, in between rain showers, we had a bed and a fridge delivered, so at least the basics are down.
It seems kind of ridiculous to be spending all this money on things that we will only use for five months or less. On the other hand, some of it (especially the big items) has resale value, and even when we add up the cost of everything we've bought or will buy and divide it by the time we have left in Sydney, the grand total of our "rent" is still less than what we've been paying in Ultimo up until two weeks ago.
The time, however, is lost. We have no internet access here (yet), which makes it difficult to get internet access, since all the information about the services are all on the web. And, as we've been over in previous blog entries, we are kind of paralyzed without internet access, especially in Chad's case, since all his work is done remotely over the net.
The good news, though, is that we have our own place. No fleas, no parties late at night, no messes in the kitchen that stay there for days, no leaky showers. We actually have too many shelves and too much space for all the stuff we have and own, so most of the place looks kind of empty. And, the very very best part of it all is the view of the Sydney city skyline... from the kitchen, from the living room, from the bedroom.2
It is cold here, though,3 which was something of a shock after our time in the tropical north. Granted, the last week of our vacation was largely inland (and so cooler) until the last two days when we returned to the coast and it was raining. Still, the coolness in far north Queensland was a good bit warmer than the rainy days here in Sydney.
As we expected, it turned out that the crazy, middle-of-nowhere place where we were when I left off last Tuesday was actually the Undara Volcanic National Park we had intended to get to. The main feature of Undara is the lava tubes formed by a volcanic eruption over 60,000 years ago. You can only visit the lava tubes with a guide, on a formal tour. We took the full-day tour, and hiked a crater rim as well as visiting five different sections of the central tube, which in its entirety is 110km long.4 Though we had planned to leave at dinnertime after our tour, we were kind of enjoying the other-worldly atmosphere of the campground and wary of driving the long road again in the dark, so we decided to stay an extra night. Being in the middle of nowhere, on the edge of Australia's "Outback," the wildlife was abundant. Pretty-faced wallabies, common wallaroos, and eastern grey kangaroos were everywhere!
Thursday morning, we got up with the sun and the wallabies for an old-fashioned "Bush Breakfast"-- eggs, beans, and bacon grilled over a fire, and toast we browned ourselves on an open flame. It was a little chilly that early, but we had real Billy Tea to warm us up.5 Then, we drove back long the Kennedy "highway" in the daylight until we reached the tiny town of Innot Hot Springs, where a natural mineral hot spring has been diverted into tiled pools in a little camupground that was clearly past its prime. Despite being a little dingy and unkempt, though, the pools were lovely and warm, and all the time we were there we did not encounter a single foreigner-- everyone else at the campground or the motel across the street were Australians who made annual pilgrimages to the hot springs.6
From Innot Hot Springs, we began winding our way back to the Queensland coast via the many waterfalls in the area, the Mt. Hypipamee Volcanic Crater, a biodynamic dairy at Mungalli Creek in the tablelands, and the largest wind farm in Australia. By Friday afternoon we had reached Paronella Park, the remains of a Spanish-replica castle built in the 1930s by an immigrant who had made his fortunes in the sugar cane industry.7 Used by the original owners as an upscale resort, movie house, and party venue, the property was ravished by a fire in 1978, but you can walk all around the buildings and get a glimpse of what it might have been like.
By far the coolest aspect of Paronella Park was the flock of fruit bats (or "flying foxes") that lived in their trees. Though pretty far overhead, these creatures are so large that we could see them fairly well-- both sleeping and in flight. D has seen them before in zoo settings, but never in the wild. They are truly beautiful animals.
Leaving Paronella Park campground on Saturday morning, we drove down to a coastal town called Mission Beach for our last night with the van. We had intended to go hiking or sea kayaking, but between the rain, the wind, and our own exhaustion, we ended up spending most of the afternoon and evening just chilling out. Sunday we spent a few hours at the once-a-month markets in Mission Beach before driving back up to Cairns and returning the campervan. And yesterday, we got up at 4am to catch our very red-eye flight back to Sydney. In record time, we had flown from Cairns to Sydney and moved all of our crates and suitcases into our new apartment before noon on a Monday morning.
And now, just two days after finishing one trip, D has to think about her next one. Next Sunday she leaves for four days with some colleagues from her department to attend a professional conference in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. Busy days, busy weeks. At the rate we're going, our time in Australia will be up before we know what's happened to it...
;)
- D
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NOTES
1I never thought I'd miss the cheap-ass piece of crap campervan that we rented last week, but I have to admit that it would be convenient to have a vehicle right about now.
2We have a view when it's not raining, that is. We've taken in two days to using the Seattle-esque phrases: "the city's out" or "the city's not out."
3 "Cold," I've known for some time now, is a relative term, and so we mean "cold" in a coastal Australian sense. Which is the sense we are accustomed to after five months here.
4Not all of the 110km are accessible, though-- you can only go into a tube where its roof has collapsed. This will all be explained more clearly when I get around to posting the photos!
5Billy Tea is made from an Australian native plant that tastes kind of like black tea but was far cheaper than imported tea leaves "back in the day." We suspect that the chilled milk and boxed cereal that was served alongside this breakfast was perhaps not as traditional as other elements.
6Which is not to suggest that there were that many people in the little town at all. There weren't-- maybe a dozen or two, but no more than that.
7We saw an unbelievable amount of sugar cane and banana plants all over the areas of Queensland through which we were driving, and I'll have a lot more to say about that when I get the photos posted!
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