More observing in Australia
October 12-29, 2003

 
see also Gabe's photo's from this trip

A random picture left on my camera of Annie, Erik, Gabe, Marin at the ball game.  

Some Sydney school kids, who get to go to school on a ferry in the morning

Views from the ferry, from Circular Quay to the hostel where I stayed in Kirribili

<--- the Governour General's hizzie

Sydney was crazy over rugby (Rugby World Cup was happening all over Australia).  This is a rugby ball in lights on the harbour bridge

They were also crazy mad about PM John Howard, George W Bush's lackey (GW was to visit the country for 9 hours in a few days)

Students at University of Sydney, having fun as always -- this time it's Oktoberfest:

Storm clouds and windmill on the way to the observatory

The coastline south of Sydney airport just before landing on return:

And then, the road trip began.  Here's a map of where we went -- driving from Sydney to Brisbane, then flying down to Melbourne, and driving again on the Great Ocean Road:

First stop, the Wyndham Estates winery northwest of Newcastle (outside Sydney) in the Hunter Valley, a very pleasing way to spend a few hours

as you can tell by these guys. That bucket is about to become filled.

next stop, a koala colony farther up the coast.  We saw just one koala, and now I can't find it in the picture here.  It's there, somewhere.

We stayed one night in Bellingen, a small mountain town about halfway between Sydney and Brisbane.  The hostel had hairy chickens:

Bellingen is next to Dorrigo National Park, a rainforest:

here's a lizard:

Our next to last stop on the road trip, Byron Bay, home of Gabe's much beloved hippies and wannabe-counterculture.  Bryan and Gabe, here staring out over a hang-gliding jump spot:

And scuba diving the next day:

and at the beach:

Finally, down to the Great Ocean Road southwest of Melbourne.

The three of us:

Rock formations:

Brammer (at left, clutching his queasy stomach) and Hilbert (at right)
(note added 11/06, the closest rock seen in the picture between the two of them, one of the "12 Apostles", no longer exists -- collapsed suddenly in July 2005...)

me

exploring gorges

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11/03/03