More from Australia....

Hey Everybody....

I must confess that I begin each day at the beach. Each morning before sunrise I started wandering for a couple of hours. Technically, I might have been walking along the Tasman Sea not the Pacific Ocean (according to a local who isn't quite sure)... But I think the Pacific is pretty close if not right where I was. Each morning I run into surfers and swimmers.... The water is cool right now - prob'ly mid-60s - but it feels pretty good. And these folks hit the water daily. I so appreciate that! :-)

I get distracted quickly by the shells..... GOOD shelling here and in some places it's okay to collect them. This area cannot be collected.

The little parrots (rainbow lorikeets) hang out in the trees along the beach and are pretty distracting too. They can get loud and they're cute.

So, a few sunrises images:

After wandering through the Australian Museum and up & down numerous streets I decided it was time for a real bushwalking experience, which will have to in another post (sorry).

A couple of scary pics from the OLD days....first, a Diprotodon (a distant relative of koalas!). And secondly, another distant relative of those cute little koalas....a marsupial lion.

By the way, here's the Manly Wharf since I keep mentioning the Manly Ferry.

So, this the trip in a nutshell....will try to be in touch again soon. Hope this finds you well. Thanks for stopping by!

PS Sharm, this is for C! :-)

 

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Sydney, Australia

Hey Everybody,

I am way behind on the posts, but I will get caught up..... technology has not been easy to access so far.

Here are a few pics to get started.

The city with a ferry and the Opera House. Sydney is quite easy to get around by foot, ferry & bus or rail. I've mostly been on foot and ferry, using the bus to get to distant ferries.

I've heard and read that Melbourne is the true snob when it comes to coffee in Australia. But this past weekend Sydney had a Festival of Taste and people were in lines for at least an hour (I'm guessing) to get a taste of various coffees. I didn't stick around to see how long the lines actually took.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge - if you look closely you can see a group of bridge climbers at the top.

The Sydney Opera House. It has been packed with people inside and out every time I've passed by it.

Because you depend on me to deliver :-) A Harbour lighthouse....and/or fortress.

Like Norway's Royal Palace Park....Australia invites everyone to enjoy the Royal Botanic Gardens. The difference seems to be that Norway encourages walking in the grass & hugging trees while Australia takes it a little further: walk, hug, picnic on the grass and talk to the birds (but don't feed them). This is one of the garden's sculptures. It's called Earth Mother.

And an Italian Restaurant that uses old sails to create patio seating. Patio seating seems to be quite popular even in the winter. The weather has been beautiful since I got here. It does get chilly sometimes but lots of sun. In fact, the first rain was just about sunset on the 30th and a little on the way to the ferry.

Will keep trying....thanks for being patient!

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G'day Mates!

This is just a quick post from the ferry to let you know I made it. I already love this place! And I don't think it's because I'm "home" - as in on the Pacific Ocean once again, but maybe it is. Weather is beautiful.... I am on the ferry from Manly Wharf (a few miles from Sydney) headed to Sydney Harbour.

The plane ride was long, but not too bad. But I confess that I still have "plane legs" - I don't know if there is such a thing - but sometimes when I walk I feel the ground under my feet moving like the plane in light turbulence; I hope that passes soon!

I landed in Sydney right on schedule (6:30am on Saturday). I stayed up and explored all day until about 8pm when I allowed myself to go to bed. I woke around 5am and head to the beach shortly after for sunrise. I love this place and will get something more posted soon.... The only free wifi I have found so far is on the ferry!

Just FYI:

1. Toilet flush looks exactly the same so far, not counter clockwise, but I will keep checking :-)

2. Driving doesn't look so bad - even though it is backwards! - I have been studying the roads and turning lanes as I walk and ride the bus. Gonna be a piece of cake....assuming I remember to get in on the driver's side of the car!

Enjoy your weekend. More soon.

 

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Glacier National Park...in a nutshell

Hey Everyone!

I am back in Billings after a quick trip to the northwestern part of the state. I know now that I need at least 5 days in the park to see and do things. But even a short trip is worth the drive if you don't have much time.

I put a lot of pressure on this National Park because I've been staring at one image of Going-To-The-Sun Road on my wall for nearly 20 years. I can't find a copy of that print online to show you, so I am including this one (photographer unknown; sorry!) just to give you an idea of why I was going.

Saturday morning I was on the road at 4:30 in order to get to certain spots for sunrise. When I got to spot number one around 5.30am here's what I saw:

Yep....just like I've imagined all these years :-). As luck would have it there was a weekend photo workshop/tour and they beat me to the spot. But it's okay....in my 4:30am-9:30pm explorations I found several other spots I want to visit at sunrise and sunset. You know, someday.....

If you want to see wildlife this is a great place to visit. I saw pretty much everything I think: moose, deer, bighorn sheep, cows & horses (free range in or near the road) - drive carefully; those black cows are REALLY hard to see at night! Be careful of the sheep...they seem quite mild here, but apparently they've gotten comfortable with us humans & aggressively go after picnickers!

And a couple of bears - I am pretty sure both are Brown Bears (Grizzly) ...this one is about a car length away from me. I have decided that's as close as I ever need to be to a bear. I've also come to the conclusion that wildlife opportunities can turn intelligent people into fools....I really shouldn't have been standing in front of my car with nothing between me and the bear.

The second one caused such a traffic jam of onlookers that the sheriff had to shoo people away. He looked small, but the way he was digging up big rocks and tossing them aside gave me another reason to think I've been as close as I want to be to bears.

The rest of the park visit was much calmer and safer.... here are some pics of the area.

From Going-ToThe-Sun Road.

One of the really impressive aspects of this road is how well the man-made stuff fits into the natural scenery. If you aren't paying attention, then it's hard to know where one ends and the other begins. Very cool!

There's a visitor center at the continental divide (Logan Pass) and some hiking trails start here. The next two pics are from that area. This spot gets VERY busy... get here early if you want to avoid the crowds.

This is Many Glacier Lake. Lots of great hiking trails here too.

The park has had a couple of big fires in the last several years....the earth is coming back to life quite nicely.

Because of the rain and wind I was unable to get a picture of the pretty little glacier lilies. But this cool little yellow flower made up for that. I haven't found the name of it yet....

This is Running Eagle Falls - named after a great Pikuni woman warrior.

Two Medicine Lake - a nice, quiet place for a boat tour or some kayaking.

 

And from a junction in Montana because I love a sign that can stop drivers and horses... :-)!

 

That's all from Montana for now. I leave for Australia in a few days and hope to have wifi from time to time as I explore. I hope all of you are having a great summer. As always, thanks for stopping by! I will be in touch soon.

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Glacier National Park

Hey Everybody!

It's about 1pm. I've been on the road since 4:30am.... Gotta get up early for those sunrise pictures! Not that I have any transferred for you right now...next post, I promise. These are just a few pics from arrival yesterday before the severe thunderstorms started. It was cool to watch....I tried to get a pic of lightning striking a rainbow 'cuz I don't usually see that sort if thing, but I failed. At least I know it's possible.....now I want another stormy afternoon!

Anyway....this is taken from the road on the way to the park.

Next: Going-To-The-Sun Mountain from one of the trails I attempted yesterday when I started hearing thunder. Yes, I returned to my car!

 

Since it would be wrong to post without one....this is just one of MANY waterfalls along the road....but not the Weeping Wall. Sadly, that section of road is under construction. I can drive by, but no place to stop for pics.

Lots of wildlife sightings so far. One deer when I was driving. One Badger. One Hoary Marmot. No bears :-(. Good thing, really, because I opted to travel without bear mace, which makes me doubly wrong in park rangers' eyes (they don't encourage solo hiking). And, without even trying to find them...several mountain goats were hanging out along a creek (and in the road). No place to park because of road construction, but got a couple pics b/c everybody was stopping or at least slowing.

So, that's it for now. I am off to a different area and will be in touch again tonight or tomorrow after another early morning run. I have lots to say about this park, but it will have to wait until I'm not sitting in a busy parking lot. Wish you were here....we could hike and scare off bears together :-)!

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Glacier Walk Photos

Hey Everybody,

It's been about 100* each day since I've been in Montana, so I have decided to revisit the glacier walk to cool off! I should also confess that I walked to the local lake yesterday for a swim. That doesn't sound like a big deal [I know], but when you consider that I have been making fun of this little lake since I lived here for college it is kind of a big deal that I jumped in it for the first time ever... The water isn't as warm [or as clear] as the Gulf of Mexico, but it was warm enough & pretended I was at the beach. I have no doubt I will do it again soon.

Anyway, back to the glacier walk....and the disposable camera pics. The first thing I have to tell you is that this wasn't a black/white camera. It just looks that way. It was raining on & off, the ice is dirtier than other glaciers I've seen because of volcanic ash. But it's a glacier.....I got to play on it & lived to tell! :-)

This is the best example I have of how the top of the glacier looks. It is not flat at all. It sort of reminded me of waves as they roll in at the beach. The crevasses range from very shallow to very deep. And the only blue ice we saw was in the cracked areas.

 

This is the high point of our hike. It was also the only point during the entire walk where we could see the upper glacier. It is barely visable in the photo, but it's there.



I didn't just learn how to use an ice ax and crampons...I learned about glacial cones too. These cones can be seen at various points along the most melted sections. When the dirt/ash forms a thick enough coat on the ice it works as insulation. So, there is some pretty blue ice under this dirt cone & it will eventually melt. Kinda cool though, huh?

  

At last....solid ground. This is a view from the dirt path as we were leaving.

And, finally....this has nothing to do with the glacier walk. My snorkel pics from Silfra are pretty lousy, but I'm posting one anyway. At the end of the snorkel through the fissure we entered a deep lagoon. This is part of the continually cracking earth floor. You really have to see it for yourself....it's much cooler than this looks!

Hope all is well wherever this finds you. I hope to sneak off to Glacier National Park for a quick visit in the next week or so. First, I REALLY should finish my laundry. After that I should be able to let you know where I'm headed to next.

Thanks for visiting!!

Lucky Records

Hey Everybody!

I am back in MT for a bit. It was time to do laundry! And I needed to get some sleep after the marathon trip back to the states. On 7/4 I left the hostel in Reykjavik at 6:30am & then had a long wait for my 11:30ish AM flight back to Oslo. Once in Oslo (around 4pm) I spent the rest of the day & night at the airport. I flew out of Oslo on 7/5 at 6:30AM via Frankfurt, Gemany (3hr layover). Then it was on to Newark, NJ where I found a Dunkin Donuts willing to make the Men in Black iced coffee for me even though it wasn't advertised anymore. Aaaahhhh, good to be home! One more flight.... to Denver, which is where I stopped for the night around 10pm. After 24hrs of traveling, 7/6 was an easy 1.5hr flight to Montana where I have been staring at my laundry for two days. I just started it about 10min ago.

I will let you know when I am getting ready to take off again. I think it will be in a couple weeks...

In the meantime, I promised two very cool guys that I would post a blog about their shop, Lucky Records! If you make it Iceland, stop by; they are located at Hverfisgotu 82 in Reykjavik.

What are the chances that I would choose to walk down the street that has the only record store in Iceland?!

I had to check it out. And for a moment the owners & I thought I stumped them with my question: "What's the coolest rock 'n' roll item you have?"

But the guys came up with a great answer: "We are!" and then told me that they are the only dedicated record store in the country! I must have checked out half the record bins....they really do have everything! Johnny Cash autograph, Duke Ellington, world music, old Beatles albums, and rare Icelandic pressings. Of course, you can get CDs too. :-)

So, I hope this finds all of you well and enjoying the summer. I think I will have a few more pics from Iceland soon b/c I just got my disposable camera photos back. They aren't great, but they'll give you an idea of what I saw on the glacier hike.

Mostly I had to stop looking at my photos because I got to the point where I was dissatisfied with ALL of them and wanted to hit delete way too much! So I went to bed :-) But I will be in touch again soon.....

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Happy 4th of July!

Hey Everybody!

Here I sit in Oslo's airport. It has become something of a second home this past month. The best way I can demonstrate that is with a short story. There is a Starbucks here & I have used it 2 (maybe 3) times in the past month. My most recent visit (an hour ago) went something like this:

Me: Hi, java chip frappucinno, please.

Barista: I remember you. You went north and saw the ice bears.

She apologized for not remembering my name, but I assured her it was okay. How many thousasnds of people have ordered this past month? I was just glad she remembered me for a travel story and not my order, like my local FL Starbucks or my favorite DQ during college. For the record....I love my local FL Starbucks!

I have about 10 hours in the airport & about 1 hr of free wifi - unless the desk staff change. Then, I could get another password. But that might mean losing the best airport bed I've had in Oslo. For the first time I have gotten to a full length cushioned bench for the night! It's the simple things that matter when traveling. You know, ice for drinks, benches for sleeping, and free wifi.

More from Reykjavik....

While this is NOT a great photo, I had to take the pic. How could I not love a place that humanizes its cars!

This church is visible from pretty much anywhere in town. The statue in front was a gift fom the US to Iceland on the thousandth anniversary of the discovery of Iceland.

I still don't understand why these vertical photos are so weird on the blog....if anybody knows how to fix it, please teach me!

The last lighthouse(s)....for now. This was taken at the local sailing club.

And some flowers at the church....

More soon.