The Royal Botanic Gardens

Things to do in Sydney. Lots to choose from. The view from the ferry is a brilliant first look at the city. Amazing. Jilly was quite literally jumping up and down with excitement. We visited the Museum of Contemporary Art right by the harbour - and that had some very interesting stuff. We had cocktails 47 floors up, overlooking Sydney from a revolving bar, courtesy of Rowan and we spent a lovely afternoon in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

They cover 30 hectares of land alongside the Opera House and overlooking the harbour and contain 9000 varieties of trees and plants. Very beautiful, especially in the sunshine. And so much to see. I particularly enjoyed the cacti, the ferns (the mosquito fern, for example, soaks up chemicals and poisons in water and is used to combat pollution), the ancient calyx plants and the birds and eels.

This part of Sydney was one of the first areas cultivated by the British settlers it seems. They quickly turfed the natives out and took the area over. Recently an Aussie said to me - We should give the Aborigines their land back and stop giving them benefits and hand outs. I replied - that's a lot of prime real estate. I think he was still intending to keep the best bits.

The Flying Doctor

Today we visited the Flying Doctor museum in Alice Springs. I can vaguely remember The Flying Doctor on the radio in the 50s. And the TV series that began in 1959. Their catchphrase was "Flying Doctor to Wollumboola Base."
An excellent and informative exhibition. The service was started by the Rev. John Flynn in 1928 with one aircraft, a DH 50 named Victory. Now it has 66 aircraft and operates all over Australia.
The Flying Doctor radio and TV series, I guess, was one of the first docu-dramas or soaps. The first was, of course, Land Based Nurse. In the series, written for Strand magazine, (citation needed) they called her Florence Nightingale. I do wonder which exec. came up with that name. And whose bright idea it was to give her a pet.
"I think she should have a dog."
"No, a cat would be better. It could get all tangled up in the bandages. That would be hilarious. It would go viral."
"Don't be daft. YouTube hasn't been invented yet."
"How about we give her an owl?"
"That's even dafter."
"She could keep it in her pocket."
"Hmmm, could work..."

Don't press that button!

Never say awesome again...

We have now seen something that is truly awesome. Uluru is awe inspiring. The largest monolith on earth and worth travelling half way around the world to see. A strangely magical place, even though I had steeled myself against getting caught up in any mystical stuff and nonsense! There is just something about the rock, its beauty, its setting in the middle of the desert, its colour, its shape, its markings... Never to be forgotten. Up there in my Days to Remember with dog sledding in the Arctic. I feel very lucky to be able to travel like this.

I've still not cracked uploading photos - something to do with Apple v Microsoft I think - but Roger is going to add some to illustrate this and if you can, see my Facebook page where I will put some of the photos I took.

It rained in Japan, it rained in Perth. It rained in South West Australia. It hasn't rained in Alice Springs, but the day before I arrived it rained so hard that the usually bone dry and barren desert blossomed with a dense covering of wild flowers. Mostly white, quite a few yellow, some deep red, a few a violet-blue, purple and pink.

I was looking forward to seeing the arid red centre of Australia. Well the earth everywhere is definitely very red, or perhaps more accurately very orange. But the desert? More lush, fertile, green plain than arid waste!

I should be used to my watery journeys by now but I was surprised to be driving through floods half an hour after arriving in Alice. As he slowed down to splash through the usually non-existent river which had burst its banks and spilled over the road, our shuttle bus driver told us: "This is something very few tourists see." Oh lucky us!

We learned the names of quite a few plants on our trip yesterday thanks to trainee tour guide Roz, whose aunt and uncle were the well-known botanists Mary and Basil Smith. Roz searched out a plant which bore two different coloured flowers for us and an upside down plant which sprouted leaves at the top and flowers at ground level. We saw desert myrtle, the yellow gravilia, wattle, acacia, desert oak and, of course, lots of different types of eucalyptus, or just gum trees as they call them here. There is apparently too much of a sort of grass, the name of which I can't remember, which was planted in the 70s to provide food for cattle and which spread into the desert, and many clumps of spinifex, which can give you a nasty wound if you cut yourself on it, but which has useful resinous roots which provide a local glue.

We saw lots of desert flora, but no fauna except for a dead lizard and a few birds, one which looked like a cross between a pigeon and a plover and which might have been a type of cockatiel. I'm still looking for kangaroos in the wild. Apart from a fleeting glimpse of a few in a field near Perth, and some pretty green parrots, the only wildlife we've seen has been in the zoo.

Yesterday I learned that not all boomerangs are designed to come back.  There's one called the No 7, which is made from the root of the mallow tree, which only goes one way.

Off now to explore Alice Springs and to seek out Kevin...

Our Berth in Perth.

We've been staying with Peter "Rock God" Brown and his wife Fay. Peter and I were in a band together in our early teens, The Pathfinders. His family emigrated when he was sixteen. On our first day we drove north up the coast to Hillary's Boat Harbour. The beaches are big and sandy and the sea is a beautiful blue. Then we met Monique, Luke and Penny for lunch at the famous Cicerello's, a fish and chips establishment at Fremantle, known locally as Freeo. 

On Tuesday we visited Caversham Wildlife Park and got

up close to some indigenous Australian wildlife. And in the evening we got on down with the kids (average age 73) at the Blues Club in Bull Creek.

On Wednesday we headed south to visit the wine country. All the towns and villages, the suburbs around Perth, are surrounded by bush, a scruffy wasteland of scrub. But as we headed into South Western Australia the landscape changed to rolling hills and forestland.

En route we stayed in the frontier town of Bridgetown in a lovely old wooden house being renovated by friends of Peter and Fay's, Ziggy and Rosie. Ziggy's garden has avocados, lemon and grapefruit trees. The weather is wet. Where is the hot and sunny Australian weather I've heard about? We visited three wineries in Margaret River and bought a few bottles of wine, enough to last us until we board the plane to Alice Springs.

And so here we are on Friday, now at Monique and Penny's. Luke is at work, blowing things up at the iron ore mine. And we are about to head into town to buy an edition of Ticket to Ride to feed our addiction to Trains.

Hello Australia

So here we are down under. Had a good flight from Japan via China. The weather is sunny here in Perth, although not quite as warm as we were expecting. I have a suitcase full of short-sleeved shirts. Had a look round Perth today. Lots of space and glorious sandy beaches. Excellent fish and chips for lunch at Cicerello's in Fremantle. Not much else to report as yet. Limited internet and FB - so watch this space for news of our further adventures.

Sayonara

And so our visit to Japan draws to a close. It's only been a week but it seems longer, we've packed so much in. So here are a few random observations to leave you with.
1 Toilets are usually very modern. Some have a control panel that would tax the ingenuity of Captain Kirk. I particularly like the button with musical notes on. This plays the noise of running water, so that any bodily noises you might make cannot be heard by anyone outside the cubicle.
2 There are Shinto shrines everywhere. This is what you do. Wash hands at the water bowl. Use the scoop in your right hand to pour water on to your left and vice versa. Approach altar and remove your hat. Throw a coin into the offertory box. Ring bell to summon God into the shrine. Bow twice. Make a wish in your heart. Clap twice. Bow once more.

3 When feeding the deer in Nara park remove the paper wrapper from the crackers or the deer will eat that too.
4 Geishas have nothing to do with sex. The life, traditions, customs and behaviour of a geisha is very complicated indeed. It reminds me of the Gormenghast trilogy. Not as traditional as you might think though, only going back to the beginning of the 18th century. They sing, dance, act, entertain and make tea - primarily for the pleasure of men. Apparently sexual pleasures can be found elsewhere.

Too busy

I'm very busy doing things so don't have time to write much! Still can't get pix on here so am putting them on FB. Roger is keeping you up to date so that's okay.