Thursday, December 21 Blue Mountains to Grenfel - End of Times?

     Did the Mayans have the International Date Line figured out?  If we make it to the 22nd here in Oz we'll let you know, and those of you in the States can breath easier.

      We had planned to have a quick cereal breakfast, do a short hike, then head to the Outback, hoping to get 600 km under out belt.  But the short hike to see the Glow Worm Tunnel turned out to be a 9 km hike up onto the plateau that ended up being one of the best experiences we've had yet in Australia.

But first, an ant photo for David.  This is a Bulldog Ant.  She has long, powerful
mandibles and a stinger like a wasp.  Luckily, we were unmolested by her tribe.

Our walk began with a stream crossing

Then we walked through a tall gum-tree forest ...

... and through a cave

     The GWT carried railroad tracks to the ghost town of Newnes back when it used to be a oil shale mining site.  The rails have been pulled up, and the 800 meter long tunnel has a bend in it that produces complete darkness half-way through.  On the ceilings and walls are thousands of small fly larva that have a tiny globe of bioluminescence at the end of their body, which attracts small insects to long strands of sticky filament.  Once caught, the larva reel the prey in like a fisherman.
     In the dark the blueish dots of light look like star constellations,  eerie and beautiful at the same time.  Kristy will post photos on her blog when she gets a chance.

Entering Glow Worm Tunnel

These are not the glow worms, although they are quite luminscent

Out the other end of the tunnel, it looks like a lost world

A cave troll has followed Kristy into the light!

      Our short hike ended up taking nearly four hours, but it was worth it.  We got into the LC and drove out of the Blue Mountains and onto the Tablelands, rolling and agricultural and beautiful, as it is all the way up to Queensland.  We had a late lunch break at a park with fun playground equipment.

Looks more like a bandicoot to me

A race to the top!

     We drove a couple more hours west, did some grocery shopping, and stopped for the night at campground with showers and everything!  Kelly and Dan had the dinner rotation and fixed tuna salad pita wraps, which were expeditious, nutritious, and delicious.

Wednesday, December 19 Blue Mountains (Megalong Valley to Newnes Plateau)

      Traveling with six in the LC presents some challenges. It is a rather wide vehicle so sitting three across is not as cramped and sweaty as one would presume. But finding spots for all our stuff did take a bit of rearranging. The biggest adaptation was wrapping a large chunk of our gear in our big tarp, tying it into a large package, and heaving it onto the roof basket. We're glad Ryan and Dan are here for the muscle work.                    

      Then Kristy gets on the roof and ties it down with her fancy climbing knots. That still leaves a lot of other junk to stow in the back of the car, as well as under seats, and any other nooks and crannies we can find. But somehow we make it all fit, and I can even see the traffic behind us as we drive.

      

First, you fill up the bundle ...

...  and fold it up into a waterproof pack ...

... then you carry it over to the car ...

... and push it up onto the roof.  Notice, no old people are involved.

Finally, Kristy ties it all down

     Renting a car for the week and a half we'll be on the road was an option we had talked about, and for a month or so before everyone arrived that was the plan. That sure would have given us a lot more room, and with the four kids dividing up the cost of a small car wouldn't have been that expensive. But after two days of driving we all agree that we would have missed out on all the chattering and laughing and communal road observations that we've always enjoyed as a family. Plus, coordinating even a two car convoy with only one cell phone can be frustrating. Of course, after another week of travel we might be frantically searching for a car rental place, but for now, we're happy with our arrangement.

     After driving a short way up the road we had a major animal sighting

If this were Yellowstone we'd be starting a mile long traffic jam ...

... all for a little spiny echidna

     Next we stopped at an old mining town.

Looks a little like an old Scottish castle

      Further along Ryan investigated a termite mound.

They're a lot harder than you'd think, almost like mortar.

    Like Mexico, wrecked cars are abandoned.  At least in the wilderness.

"I think this would be a good restoration project for us, Dad"

      And of course, interesting rock formations must be climbed.

     We drove on an old 4 WD track that took us into some deep fern-filled gorges.  No one else was around except us.  It felt a bit like Jurassic Park.

Deep in the wilderness of the Blue Mountains

Kelly and Dan far, far away from Ohio

     We ended up at a perfect free campground at the end of the road.  No showers or running water, but the pit toilets were clean and odor-free, and we had ...

... ducks ...

    ... lots of kangaroos around, and ...

... our first live wombat sighting.  He ambled right through our campsite
until we scared him away with all our picture taking

Ryan and Kristy preparing a delicious penne, pesto,
and veggie meal ...

,,, while Kelly took care of the onerous job
of cleaning up the avocado skins

Tuesday, December 18 Sydney to the Blue Mountains – Kelly and Dan arrive!

     KD day had arrived and we packed up our stuff, cleared out the small in-room frig, and transported it to the nearby parking garage where our LC patiently awaited. Diana had found reduced parking tickets, saving $10 off the $30 a day charge. Not a bad deal for parking in the city, I suppose. Still, the car alone cost as much as camping normally does.

      With a height limit of two meters, we couldn't load up the top carrier until exiting the garage, so we drove to a suburb on the way to the airport to wrap up our gear in a big tarp and bundle it onto the roof rack. An old lady in her nightgown walked out to the street to see what we were doing, it didn't look like a neighborhood with much going on.

    Finally we had space to fit two more people with all their stuff (Kelly and Dan are going to New Zealand with us for a month or so, then will continue on to Italy, France, Spain and Ireland for a total trip of around 5 months). We drove to the airport and repeated the scene of a few days earlier when we had picked up Ryan. Now our Down Under traveling contingent is complete. We sure wish David could be with us too! Oh well, other times, other trips.

Big smiles from Kevin, Kelly and Dan ...

... and why not, Kelly and Dan get  to stand up after 24 hours on planes,
more or less 

     Unlike Kristy and Ryan, who got their first several days of Oz in the city, we headed straight to the Blue Mountains with KD. Well, sort of. First, of course, we did have to do a little shopping first, but eventually we made it.

Four young Yanks in the Blue Mountains

Burt family portrait

Kicking a rainbow

Walking along a ledge at Wentworth Falls

      After hiking around for awhile we drove to a free campsite where we had stayed three months earlier, set up camp, and had Turkish meat balls, couscous and cucumber/onion salad.

Kevin at the stove ...

and Dan making a salad

C'mon Kelly, give me a grin

First Oz dinner together

Monday, December 17 Sydney

     Today was our last full day in Sydney.  Kelly and Dan arrive tomorrow morning, and once we pick them up we head right out to the Blue Mountains.  So we had to decide what we would do for the day.  The Powerhouse Museum is sort of a science and technology showcase, and has the added attraction of having a new exhibit about inventing featuring Wallace and Gromit, Claymation characters that are very popular in the Burt family, so that seemed like a no-brainer.

The museum had actual sets from Wallace and Gromit movies

Our exposure to the movie industry continues

A replica of the robot from the '60s TV show
Lost in Space.  I had a crush on the character
Penny Robinson, played by Angela Cartwright. We
were both 13.

Ryan and I find ourselves in a big room with planes,
cars, motorcycles, trains, and rocket ships.  Of course.

    We ate our lunch of Tasty and bread and apples out by the museum playground, where we watched the kids playing on the cool apparatuses.

      After looking through the museum we walked across town to check out the Museum of Contemporary Art, which being free meant we didn't mind getting there 25 minutes before it closed.  Turns out that was long  enough.

I think I'll probably be having disturbing dreams tonight

One of the more interesting installations at the museum,
although somewhat indecipherable

    Our walk back to the hostel took us by some interesting places, and I got to take photos of some of my favorite subjects.

Like Chinese gardens ...

... palm trees ...

... community art ...

... and highly reflective surfaces.

     We got back to the hostel before dark, for a change, and had dinner of Indian take-out and leftover Aloo Gobi on the roof.  And we had a couple bottles of beer to go with it!  Wohoo!

Cheers!

     As it got dark we watched the cockatoos and currawongs and fruit bats flying by, then talked until 10 pm, closing time for the roof top terrace and time for us to get to bed.