FEBRUARY 7, 2009 - THE GHAN (DAY 1)

FEBRUARY 7, 2009 - 30/102 - THE GHAN (DAY 1)

The shuttle to our train, The Ghan, picks us up at the hotel at 7:45AM along with a dozen other passengers. It has continued to rain during the night and it is pouring for the trip out to the terminal, south of Darwin. Fortunately, after one final deluge, the rain decreases to a drizzle and we can get off the bus without getting too wet.

Now we come to the luggage check-in. When we got on the bus, the driver took our larger bag, tagged it, and lifted it into the bay under the bus. At the station, a baggage handler removed it from the bay and took it into the terminal. In the terminal, they lift the bag onto a scale to weigh it and tell us it is over the 20 kilogram weight limit set for health and safety of the workers. Now mind you, this is the same bag that was weighed, approved, and handled in Sydney and then again in Perth, they have lifted and moved this bag at least three times already in Darwin. Oh, well, when in Rome, etc., etc. Carolyn removes two travel guides, the bag is weighed, approved, tagged and placed on the baggage wagon to be loaded into the baggage car.

We have to reboard the bus to be taken to the train which is right in front of us on the tracks. However, there is no track-side cover and the rain is still threatening. We are driven at least a kilometer around the area so that the bus can pass down the side of the train and drop people right beside their carriage. We check our confirmation and are in carriage "M", Births 7/8. We get off at M, the last carriage with people on the bus, and are last in line to be checked onto the train. The conductor has no record of us and someone else is already in births 7/8. After a quick conference, it is determined that we have received a complimentary upgrade to the new "Platinum" level cars and service. We, along with a conductor, haul our luggage through the train, five or six cars to carriage "P5, Births 7/8."

What a pleasant surprise! Our Platinum compartment is two and one half times the size of our Gold compartment on the Indian Pacific train. It contains a comfortable sofa, fold down double bed (no climbing into a top bunk), a coffee sized table, two stools and a full bath comparable to that in our motor home; no pull down facilities like last time. One of the nicest features is that you can sit on the couch and watch out of both sides of the carriage at the same time since they have placed a large window in the hall wall of the compartment.

After a light lunch, we arrive in Katherine and board a bus to take us to Katherine Gorge (Nitmiluk National Park) for a power boat trip up part of the system of 13 gorges. It is THE WET here also and the river is 3-4 meters above its normal level and rising. This allows the tour operator to use a power boat capable of taking us past the second set of falls into the third of the gorges. At the boat launch, the trees are crowded with Flying Foxes (Fruit Bats) and the guide points out a small olive python in the tree above the launch. He assures us that the snake only eats the occasional small child.

Normally, the trip would only go to the first set of falls at the top of the first gorge and to go further, you would have to get out and walk or portage your canoe. At the first falls, there are 100 yards of Class I rapids which the boat powers through easily. The next two sets of falls are buried in the high water and do not display any rough water as we pass them. The gorge is sacred to the aborigines and our guide, an aborigine himself, explains his people’s religious belief about the area. I suppose that with study, one could begin to understand their "Dream Time" beliefs, but I must confess that they make no sense to me at this point. To each his own!

The gorge is beautiful to see, especially so far up into it. The walls are red sandstone with plentiful wet season water falls and green vegetation. At the fourth set of falls, we turn around and head back down the river. At the first falls, we are warned to put cameras away in the garbage bags with which we have been provided and with good reason. As we power through the rapids, we take awave over the bow and all of us get a good soaking. Oh, well, it is warm and we are dressed to get wet. Because of a twenty person limit on the boat trip up the river due to the rapid, high water, it takes two loads to get us all up to see the gorge. Each trip takes approximately 40 minutes. While we wait for the second group to take their trip, we visit the park’s visitor center where we enjoy a well done display on the geology and human occupation of the area.

We are due back at to the train by 4:30PM and our bus driver, apparently inexperienced, stops in town to allow some of the passengers to visit a grocery store. There is the inevitable slow mover and we wait for one woman who finally shows up twenty minutes after the time set to return to the bus.

There is one seating for dinner, 6:45PM. The menu is Australian weird. Dick, an adventurous eater, has a duck salad and tries the kangaroo filet, grilled mushrooms and sweet potato mash. Carolyn tries a mushroom and butter bean soup that we both decide is not to our tastes and a chicken dish with roasted new potatoes with a strange tasting tomato and caper sauce.

We are both quite sleepy by the time dinner is over. It is raining, the light is gone and we are in bed and asleep by 9PM.

FEBRUARY 6, 2009 - DARWIN (DAY 2)

FEBRUARY 6, 2009 - 29/103 - DARWIN (DAY 2)

After a solid twelve hour nap, Dick is up by 8:00AM to enjoy a coffee and to work on this blog. Carolyn finally rolls out shortly before 10:00.

Darwin has two seasons: THE WET and THE DRY.

WE ARE HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF "THE WET."

By 9:15, the first torrential rain of the day is sweeping across the area. We have been warned that this will happen off and on all day and to just expect it. Most of the rain is supposed to arrive in the afternoon but we are off to an early start today. While the sky does not clear immediately after the rain, it does brighten considerably and one can see heavy thunder heads off to the northwest and west with a patch of blue here and there.

The deluge is over within five minutes. At the height of the deluge, Dick sees a lady pushing a baby carriage in the Esplanade Park as if the day were still bright and sunny. She is dressed for jogging, the carriage has a minimal covering over its passenger and nobody seems concerned about the rain.

After breakfast, at 11AM, we head south toward Litchfield National Park. It is showery but not bad and the highway is good. For the last stretch on the Stuart Highway, before the turn for the park, the speed limit is 130 kmh; 81.5 mph.

All along the highway are markers for WWII fighter airstrips which were used in defense of Darwin during the war. The strips are right beside the highway and one of them has mockups of period fighter planes on the strip. We also stop at the sight of the Number 1 Medical Receiving Unit where casualties from the area were treated. Nature has reclaimed the area and one would never know it was a major forward hospital for over two years.
The road into Litchfield is lightly wooded with brushy trees and, right now, lush bright green grasses. There are 4-5 months of wet season with frequent floods and the rest of the year is bone dry. There are perfectly flat stretches of the highway with flood warning signs and markers over two meters tall that warn not to enter without checking the flood gauge. We are not sure where that much water would come from and can’t see why this particular stretch of highway would be subject to flooding that extent.We stop at one, very tall, Magnetic Termite Mound and take photos. It is easily eleven, if not twelve feet tall. They are called Magnetic Termites because they orient their mounds north-south for heating and cooling purposes. One field has 40-50 of them but it is starting to rain and so we don’t get a photo of those. Actually, it looks like an old cemetery with weather worn old fashioned, monument style headstones. We stop and walk the 80 meters down to "Buley Rockhole", a series of large pools connected by little falls at the foot of a big waterfall series. There are several couples swimming. This is one of a couple of swimming holes that are free of crocodiles! We then move up the road to Florence Falls. We could have walked the 1.1 trail to the falls, but drove and walked the two hundred meters instead! It is beginning to rain again and the falls are roaring due to all the rain! We head back for the car without getting too wet. Little do we know what is in store for us down the way. The next falls to see is Tolmer Falls. A few kilometers from the turn to the falls, we see a dark wall of cloud heading our way and getting darker and closer by the moment. As we arrive at the parking lot for the falls, it is beginning to sprinkle. The walk to the falls is 400m, one way. We elect to go for it and head down the path. About 100m from the falls, the heavens open up and it starts to rain with a vengeance. We are soaked in moments, so we just continue on to see the falls. Heading back up toward the car, the walkway is running ankle deep in water in some places. By the time we get to the car, we could not be wetter and, naturally, we had neglected to bring a towel.We head back toward the park entrance in driving rain that comes in swirling waves of water punctuated by moments of no rain at all. It is 60+ kilometers back to the Stuart Highway and it takes most of an hour in the heavy rain. At places, the water is now over the road but not to the point of danger.

We finally run out of the rain but it is a wall of dark cloud behind us and moving our way. We stop at the Didgeridoo Hut and are pleasantly surprised to find authentic aboriginal art and crafts as well as a three month old "Joey" (a baby Kangaroo) that is being raised by the owner. The mother was hit by the train nearby and the rangers brought the baby here to be nursed. He is a friendly little thing and likes to have his ears rubbed just like a dog.

Still wet, we arrive back at our hotel with the dark cloud of rain still in the south and southwest heading for us. Fortunately there is a washer and drier in our apartment and we begin to do laundry immediately after walking in the door. Carolyn begins to pack for our move to "The Ghan" tomorrow morning. As we work on our projects, the rain catches up to us and our room’s patio is deluged with a flood of rain so thick and heavy that we cannot see the harbor waters 100 meters in front of us. We treat ourselves to dinner in the hotel restaurant and are pleasantly rewarded with a very nice meal of tempura coconut tiger prawns, steak, garlic mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables and a trio of ice creams with a poached berry sauce. While eating, three waves of driving rain and wind assault the glass doors to the restaurant. The glass doors do not fit well at either the top, bottom or middle and the wind howls through the gaps in the glass. Rain has been blowing under the doors and towels are on the floor against the doors but the wind is so strong that it blows the wet towels back from the doors. In Texas, we would be placing plywood on the windows and running the bathtub full of water but it does not seem to effect the wait staff at all.

We return to our room, finish packing for our move to the train and set our alarm so as to be ready to be picked up by our complimentary transfer at 7:45AM tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow we begin our two day trek through the Red Center on The Ghan.

FEBRUARY 5, 2009 - DARWIN (DAY 1)

FEBRUARY 5, 2009 - 28/104 - DARWIN (DAY 1)

The alarm goes off at 5:00AM and we are out the door heading for the Perth Airport by 6:20. The traffic is very light and it takes us about 30 minutes to reach it. The rental car return area is very inconvenient as the airport is under some major reconstruction. We have to walk quite some way to the check-in counter. Security is the usual hassle, but there is no line and goes as smoothly as it ever does and we have something over an hour to wait for boarding time for our 8:30 flight. The Perth airport, at least where we are, is quite comfortable and the wait passes quickly. Carolyn roams the shops and finds some more tiny puzzles.

Our flight leaves on time and we fly across a great, red ocean for about three hours before we began to see green and flowing water again. For this four hour flight, we had elected to fly economy class to save $1500 and lucked out with just the two of us in our three abreast row of seats. Plus much to our surprise, Qantas is very nice in economy. They served a nice continental breakfast and a snack. They have "Australia" as the in flight movie so Carolyn watches it again. About an hour out of Darwin, a deck of clouds appeared below us and was broken to solid the rest of the way. We did get a look at the Darwin area on final approach and our impression was of a very tropical land with palm trees, red dirt and showers all about the area.

Our first Hertz rental car, despite their cars being non-smoking, reeks of cigarette smoke so we get it swapped for a clean one and get a $27 credit on the bill for our trouble. Then, we are off to find the Mantra Esplanade Hotel on the Esplanade in Darwin. It is easy to find. How hard can it be in Darwin? Our room is on the 5th floor overlooking the harbor. From our balcony, all we can really see is Esplanade Park, a small pleasure boat park to our right (NW), gray/blue/green water of the harbor and land in the distance to the southwest. The industrial and fishing harbor is to our left (SE) and around a bend in the land.

It is showery but we need a late lunch so we venture forth and find, nearby, an open air Irish Pub named "Shenanigans". The posted menu looks promising, we go in and order the "catch of the day". This, like most places in Australia and New Zealand, is basically fish and chips. The fish is a huge filet and with the chips and salad it makes more than a meal. Evidently the Aussies do not use ketchup nor do they use vinegar on their fried fish. The condiment offering is a homemade tartar sauce that is OK but the fish and chips would be so much better with vinegar and/or ketchup. It is an Irish pub and they have at lest twenty beers on tap and another 50-60 by the bottle. Dick picks a tap beer at random and pronounces it good.

We then go exploring the downtown area on foot. The heat and humidity are stifling and within ten minutes, neither if us own a dry thread of clothes. We are amazed at how few of the shops are air-conditioned. Working in them all day must be a real trial; or, maybe you get used to it. It reminds Carolyn of shopping as a kid before A/C!

Carolyn fulfills one of her trip’s shopping goals when she discovers a shop called the "Pearl Gallery." It is operated by two ladies and the owner makes her a good deal on two unset South Sea Australia farmed pearls from the farms near Broome. She is tempted by four, fairly small, baroque, natural pearls from the same area but, at $500AU each, she passes. Evidently, natural, uncultured, pearls are becoming quite rare as the success of pearl farming continues to grow. Anyway, there are still opal(s) to buy.

We return to the hotel and retrieve the AIR-CONDITIONED car and begin a more comfortable exploration of the city. Our first destination is an area called Cullen Bay. It contains some shops and a few restaurants and is the embarkation point for a trip to Tiwi Island. Tiwi is an aboriginal community and, for the mere sum of $250AU you too can ride out and spend the day; including lunch. We are sure it would be interesting but it is a little steep for our blood and we don’t want to spend a whole day in that way.

We next head for Stokes Hill Wharf. At first glance it appears to be just a fishing pier but at the end is a closed off area with open air restaurants offering, mainly, oriental dishes or cold or fried sea foods. It contains one, apparently, nice restaurant, called "Crustaceans on the Wharf" but they are closed. The sign on the door reads, "We will be closed from December 21 until March 9. We are taking the boat fishing. Please visit us when we return and try our new menu items." Carolyn does not trust the oriental food and we have had our fried food for the day so we pass.

Stokes Hill Wharf is the target sight of the first bomb to be dropped during the Japanese air raid on February 19, 1942. You know, the air raid that is shown in the movie, "AUSTRALIA." There is a substantial bronze plaque mounted on the wharf marking the event. The wharf of that time was destroyed in the raid and several ships were sunk. Today’s wharf was constructed in 1946. By the way, Darwin does not look anything like the Darwin in the movie. Surprise, surprise!!

We continue our explorations by taking a look at several historic buildings and an Anglican church. Most of Darwin was destroyed Christmas Day 1974 by a typhoon. Most of the old stone buildings, from the mid to late 1800s, were destroyed or heavily damaged as was the rest of the city. Ruins of some of the historic buildings have been restored, or stabilized ( the Town Hall), or incorporated into new construction (the Church) and the result is quite interesting.
By now, it is all of 7:00PM and we are exhausted what with the heat, humidity and the early start to our day. By 8:00PM Dick is asleep and Carolyn is well on her way to the same destination.

FEBRUARY 4, 2009 - FREMANTLE

FEBRUARY 4, 2009 - 27/105 - FREMANTLE (DAY 2)

This morning we sleep in a bit, fix breakfast and walk over to Shed C on Victoria Quay where we catch the11:15 ferry to Perth.

It is pleasant a morning for a boat ride with a cooling breeze and lots of sun. The ferry travels about 15 miles up the Swan River to a dock in downtown Perth. The river is gorgeous with lots of pleasure boats moored along the way at the many marinas. Of course, overlooking the river are many spectacular homes. There are obviously many wealthy people in Western Australia. The ride takes an hour and a half and the staff offers a wine tasting as a way to pass the time.
As I said, the dock is in the center of Perth so it is easy to walk to some of the sites during the short time we have. Perth is very clean, very modern and has a great park system. We pass the Swan Bells Tower, an impressive glass structure that chimes the hours as we leave the dock area and head to the Supreme Court Gardens. It is the lunch hour and lots of people are eating under the trees. We pass the pretty St Georges Anglican Church and the Town Hall and turn down the pedestrian shopping street to check out some of the jewelry stores for opals. Off the main shopping area there is an arcade shopping street heading back toward the docks so we walk down this delightful little street and I duck into an antique store in which I could have spent the day! The owner was very easy to visit with...she travels all over the world to find her stuff and has a very good eye!
Time has flown by and we head back to the dock and our return trip. The wind has really kicked up again and the river is 3km wide near Perth so there are really white caps on the seas as we head down river. In Fremantle the tide is coming in with a vengeance and with the wind at 35 knots (minimal gale force) the captain has trouble getting the ferry tied off.

Back at the condo we get things ready for our early flight to Darwin in the morning. We have a cocktail, watch the sun set from the deck, have dinner and call it a night.
Off to the Northern Territory, our forth state in Australia.

FEBRUARY 3, 2009 - FREMANTLE

FEBRUARY 3, 2009 - 26/106 - FREMANTLE

Carolyn found some fresh peaches at a fruit stand at the gas station on the way to Fremantle yesterday so we have them with some milk provided by the lodging along with our tea and coffee for breakfast. We then head out to find the Big"I" (information) for some information on the ferries to Perth.

The information center is in the main square so we walk around checking out the church and the old town hall before going up to Fremantle Prison, with its sturdy, forbidding gate-house and limestone cell blocks. It was built by convicts in 1855 and served as a prison until 1991. The housing for the warden and staff is as nice as the prison is stark.

It is now officially HOT so we find a grocery and pick up some fruit and lunch makings. We check out the South Beach, a really nice park with a nice beach, for later and head back to the condo for a while. While at the beach, we see a whole big bus load of school children with their teachers in a roped off area of the ocean apparently having swimming lessons. The kids are divided into groups by age and each group has on a different colored swimming cap! They seem very well behaved. Back at the condo, during the heat of the day we work on email and plan our trip over to Perth tomorrow on the Ferry.

About 4pm we get out again and walk around Bathers Beach (you can see the condos in the distance) to the Round House, built in 1830 and used as a goal. It is Fremantle’s oldest building.

Under the Round House which sits on a limestone bluff is the Whalers Tunnel, dug about 1837 so the whalers could easily get their goods to High Street from the wharf.

We then walk around in the old section of town exploring the beautiful Victorian architecture. On the way back to the quay, Carolyn finds a nice jewelry store and gets a lesson on Australia’s south sea pearls. Another item is now added to the must have souvenir list!
Throughly hot again, we head back over to South Beach and play in the water. The wave action has really picked up from this morning and it is fun. There are lots of people swimming and otherwise enjoying the park.

Back at the condo we cook in tonight and just relax.

FEBRUARY 2, 2009 - YALLINGUP TO FREMANTLE

FEBRUARY 2, 2009 - 25/107 - YALLINGUP TO FREMANTLE

Well, it is moving day again. We get a leisurely start after a nice breakfast on the porch. The first thing we do is talk to the manager about the owner’s place in Tuscany. The owner had given us a flyer on the villa the day we got here. She asked about our plans and one thing lead to another. Anyway they own a small villa that they rent out in the countryside in a part of Italy where we have always wanted to spend a week. We may now have a plan for the last part of the trip. If the villa is as nice as the cottage, it will be great. The pictures look good anyway, so we put on a tentative hold until we can think about it some more.

Next we go back over to the beach. There is a walk out onto the Canal rocks that we want to do. It is a beautiful morning, but we can already tell it is going to be very hot today. The rocks are really neat. Canals have been eroded into the rocks and there is a bridge walkway connecting the sections. Several locals befriend us and we spend some time talking to them. This is not the first time this has happened. They are all interested in why we came to Western Australia for"holiday." Apparently they do not get that many visitors from the US. A couple of them are eager to tell us their immigration history. Two came from Germany in the late 50's or early 60's and two came from England many years ago. It was interesting to hear their stories.

Next we drive over to Cape Naturaliste, a point of land about 25km up the road. I have said it before, but again I think this water is just beautiful! After checking out the lighthouse on the cape, we go to Bunker Beach. It is really more like a small cove and is gorgeous with an arc of rocky out-croppings going out into the water with a white sandbeach and turquoise water! I wish we had found this spot earlier; what a great place to swim and snorkel!OK, it is now after noon and we have gone all of 30km! So, we hit the road heading up the coast to Fremantle. It is an easy 3-plus hour drive through some built up areas. We get to our home for the next three nights, Harbor Apartments on the Quay, about 4PM. The location is great, on a finger of land between the pleasure boat harbor and the fishing harbor. We have a three-bedroom two bath condo overlooking a fleet of million dollar pleasure boats!

After unloading, getting things set up and cranking down the AC, we walk to the head of the quay and pick one of the several fish houses for a seafood dinner. It has been very hot and sunny today, but as the sun goes down the breeze picks up and things cool down very fast. So we enjoy our open air seafood dinner on the dock.

Tomorrow we explore Fremantle.

FEBRUARY 1, 2009 - YALLINGUP (WILDWOOD COTTAGES)

FEBRUARY 1, 2009 - 24/108 - YALLINGUP (WILDWOOD COTTAGES)

After a good night’s sleep, we are out and about before 10:00AM. It is a Sunday and, while things are open, they mostly do not open until 10:00AM. Speaking of Sunday, we have decided that Australia, as well as New Zealand, has given up on organized religion. Outside of the church in the center of town, usually built shortly after the town was founded, you simply do not see churches or other houses of worship.

This Sunday, we first go to Smith’s Beach, about three km from the cottage. We can see this area from the porch at the cottage. We find a lot of people at the beach, also in the stores and exploring the wineries. The day has the feel of a Saturday, not a Sunday.

We visit several art galleries but do not find anything we cannot live without. We buy a loaf of bread from a wood fired bakery, three bottles of wine at two different wineries and check out others for the possibility of lunch. While several of them are serving lunches in beautiful settings, the dining is all open air and the temperature is in the high 80s; much too warm for us to sit out and be able to enjoy our food.
We finally end up in the town of Margaret River where we buy two kebobs at Kappadokia Turkish Kebaba. We were thinking shishkabobs when we read about the place but the offering turns out to be a variation of the gyro sandwiches we have enjoyed in Europe. It is basically a spiced meat, beef, lamp or chicken, chopped up, grilled and served on a round, thick piece of flatbread which is rolled around the meat with onion, lettuce and tomato. It is so hot that it literally cooks the onion in the bread! Delicious, especially Dick’s combination that includes some of all three meat offerings.

We also stop at a grocery to pick up a few things for the next few days, gas up the car and make a final stop at Olieo Bello to purchase some of their specialty olive oil. We arrive back at "Honeybee Cottage" about 4:00PM and finish our movie. A little after 6:00PM we make the short drive over to Smith Beach to take a swim in the Indian Ocean. The sand is white, the water is blue/green, clean and clear. We have seen such pretty water all along the Australian coast. I think we may turn in our brown, Texas coastal beaches and water and apply for replacement with the Australian/New Zealand variety.

After our giant gyro sandwiches and late lunch, dinner is fruit, cheese, bread, olive oil and a little white wine. A pleasant end to a very nice day. Oh, yes, we see the Kangaroos again in the same place as last night.

JANUARY 31, 2009 - CAPE HOWE TO YALLINGUP

JANUARY 31, 2009 - 23/109 - CAPE HOWE TO YALLINGUP

We are on the road by 9:30AM heading west on the coast highway. We go back to the Cheese Factory outside of Denmark for a resupply of cheese and fudge! Our first new stop is for the "Tree Top Walk" in the Valley of the Giants near Walpole. A metal walkway is suspended in the giant Karri and Tingle trees. As the sign says, "The walk is suitable for wheelchairs as long as you don’t mind a bit of bounce and sway."

Well, it does bounce and sway as you walk from one platform to another while climbing ever higher into the forest canopy. The tallest platform is 40m tall and you get quite a view up into the tree tops above you as well as down to the forest floor. The total walk is 600m and well worth the all day pass of $8AU each for the experience.

We continue on driving west through Northcliffe, where we have a picnic in the city park, and Pemberton. The land is rolling and mostly covered with dense forest. We wonder at the obvious signs of fire in several places, but know that there are frequent controlled burns to clear forest litter and underbrush so as to prevent a major fire. This area has not had a major forest fire since the 1950s.

After nearly 400km through this forest area with very little else of interest, we arrive at Augusta and Cape Leeuwin and its lighthouse that mark the most extreme southwestern point of Australia as well as the convergence of the Indian and Great Southern Oceans. We purchase admission tickets for $4AU each and walk out to the lighthouse and a point to view the crashing surf, beautiful blue-green water and to fight the ever present flies. We are gong to suggest to Obama that the US make a goodwill gift to Australia of several million pounds of insecticide. Surely something can be done to rid the country of this scourge. Before heading North to our home for the next two days, we stop at the beach at Flinders Bay which is another beautiful swimming beach. The sun is out in force and lots of families are enjoying the day....school starts soon!

We arrive at Wildwood Cottages south of Yallingup at 6:00PM and wait for a few minutes for the owner while we have a glass of white wine from the Evans & Tate winery. We are soon escorted to "Honeybee Cottage", our home for the next two nights. The cottage is a small, two room affair with two covered porches. The main room contains a king size bed, couch, TV with DVD and very efficient kitchen including a refrigerator, microwave and dishwasher. Any cooking, other than microwave style, is to be done on the gas grill on the front covered porch. You know, "throw another shrimp on the barbie." It is another perfect place!
We pour a glass of wine and break out some cheese and enjoy the view out over the valley below us. As the sun sinks in the west and the shadows crawl up the hill toward us, we finally see our first Kangaroos in the wild. A group of, at least, a dozen appear on a hillside to our left and, while not close, we get a good look at them as they graze. We also are treated to some close ups of a few of the many interesting and different Australian birds.Neither of us is interested in going out to dinner so we make supper out of the ample breakfast food provided for our enjoyment and start to watch "The Perfect Storm" but call it a day half way into the movie.