24th-27th - Tangalooma

Tangalooma is a resort on Moreton Island just outside Brisbane – a short one hour boat ride gets you there. The island is mostly national park so, with a few exceptions, the resort is the only thing built there.

The NP has a wide range of animals that generally are not afraid to get relatively close to humans, so you can get into some pretty close-up situations, even if they are all wild animals. The resort has a bunch of activities that covers most of the wildlife on the island; feeding, walks, presentations, cruises, whale watches, tours, etc. And there are facilities for snorkeling, diving, walking on your own on most of the island, ATV tours, helicopter rides, massages and so on. The big thing on the island is the nightly dolphin feed where a small group of wild dolphins come in at night to be fed by the tourists under strict supervision of the staff. A very popular activity which any visitor can only do once every visit (unless you know the right people… *cough*).

We spent three nights here; me taking in all the sights, Ina showing me around the first day before she had to work the last 3 days.

Due to low numbers in tourists there were no whale watches until the last day we were on the island. This was also the last day in the whale watch season which must have been why they chose to go out, even though they didn’t manage to fill up the ship at all. But lucky for us – I would have been sad if I came down there in whale territory and didn’t get to see a single one. Success!

Late the 27^th we went back to the main land as I was on a late flight out to Kathmandu. Big thanks to Ina for having me there and showing me around!

Looking down on the Tangalooma Wrecks from a ridge that goes behind the resort. The resort is right below us to the left.

A kookaburra ready for food during a feed. 

A cormorant.

A whistling kite.

A sea turtle.

Dugong.

Tinkerbell with her calf Tangles.

The dolphin feed.

Feeding Bella - and old, half-blind, almost toothless dolphin. This meant that you had to be prepared to be bumped into a lot while standing there trying to feed her.

Feeding Tinkerbell and Tangles (yup, two dolphin feeds in one visit... All about who you know... ;) ).

This parrot-things were seen quite alot.

22nd-23rd - Lamington NP

I arrived in Brisbane Sunday the 21st where I got picked up by Ina at the airport and the following morning we drove to Lamington NP where we would spend a single night. This national park is known for its bird life so our hopes were that we would be seeing a large variety of birds - and getting some good shots as a bonus.

The weather wasn’t quite as we had hoped; overcast some of the time and not too warm. But it didn’t get too bad, either, so we did get to see a few birds during the afternoon after we arrived, especially because they weren’t too shy and got quite close to the resort where we were staying.

The next morning we had a small tour around the resort where we were introduced to the less visible birds. After breakfast we went for a long walk – the weather wasn’t too optimistic, and the bird sightings were limited, but we got a good impression of the surrounding areas and nature, and that wasn’t too bad either.

After this walk we drove back to Brisbane, readying ourselves for an early departure to Tangalooma, a resort on Moreton Island just outside Brisbane, the next morning.

Third and last vacation this year confirmed!

Finally I managed to get time off from work in the fall which enabled me making reservations for the last vacation I have been hoping to go on this year. Without further ado; the itinerary:

20th of October

Leaving Copenhagen to arrive in Brisbane the 21st.

21st - 27th of October

Spending time in Brisbane which, among other things, will include a visit to Tangalooma Resort on Moreton Island just outside Brisbane. This resort has a wide range marine wildlife which can bee seen on the various safaris that they host.

28th of October

Depart Brisbane to go to Kathmandu.

28th of October - 11th of November

Trek in the Himalayas with the goal of reaching Everest Base Camp. The 29th we will fly to Lukla and from there walk to Phakding, where we will be spending two nights for acclimatization. The 1st of November we will push on to Tengboche and after one night we will continue to Dingboche and spend two nights here. After this we will go to Lobuche, continue to Everest Base Camp (app. 5300m) and the 6th we will end up in Pheriche. From here we will spend 3 days going to Gompa, Tengpoche, Monjo and back to Lukla. The 10th we take a flight back to Kathmandu, and the 11th the group disbands.

11th of November

Flight back home.

3rd - Home

Considering how much I have been flying on my vacation, it was just a matter of time before something would go wrong. Too bad it was on my trip home things didn’t go as planned.

I checked in at the airport at Alice Springs, and after going through security I double-checked my tickets, just to make sure that they were correct. I noticed, that boarding time in Sydney was 0730 which I couldn’t get to fit with the fact that the plane would take off at 1815. So I talked with a guy at their service counter, and after a while he found out that the plane was delayed almost 12 hours, which meant that I would have to stay the night in Sydney before continuing my trip home.

Arriving at Sydney I was taken aside together with a small group who also was planned to go with the flight to London (via Bangkok), we got our luggage and got taken to a hotel (incl. a phone call and dinner voucher). Early next morning we came back to the airport, checked in, got a breakfast voucher and finally we left for London.

The part of the trip before Bangkok was very quiet as the plane wasn’t even half full. I sat next to (with a spare seat between us, we were sitting on H and K) a Danish girl who had also been stranded in Sidney due to the delay. When reaching Bangkok I had to move to another seat (I noticed this already at Alice, but when asking the woman in the check in if it wasn’t possible for me to stay in the same seat for the entire trip as on the way down she didn’t understand what I meant, despite trying explaining in several different ways). I moved to a window seat further back, but I sat behind a very large man, and next to him a similar large woman, which meant that my knees were getting killed. (On top of that I was sitting next to the kitchen, and I suspect that the rows (seat A-C and H-K) were set a little closer together so that they could line up perfectly to form a complete row behind the kitchen together with the D-G part. Let’s just say that my knees and legs weren’t amused).

After watching the first movie (UP, long live VOD!) I went to the toilets, and guess what I saw? The Danish girl was sitting alone on the three seats… So I went over and asked if I could get to sit where I sat before, and she was nice and understanding enough to say yes. Woo! Better room for my legs and a (much) better looking neighbor!

When arriving at London it was 1940, and no more planes would be leaving for Copenhagen, so once again we were sent to a hotel. I was put on a plane at 0655 together with another Danish guy, so we didn’t have more than 6-7 hours at the hotel, including dinner, check in, and sleep. It was hard work getting up – especially knowing that the Danish girl had been put on a plane at 1200-ish.

I set up my alarm on my phone, even though I had ordered a wake-up call, just in case. The phone in the room never rang, so I have never been happier for having my mobile phone. Apparently none of those who had ordered a wake-up call this early (0330…) had received their call, so the reception was getting slightly panicky (it was an automated system). I wonder how many people have missed their plane that morning due to the missing wake-up call?

I finally arrived in Copenhagen 0945 Monday, 22 hours after my scheduled arrival.

All in all Qantas were very helpful at every step of the process of getting home (they have been so for every flight, but this was the only time they encountered unforeseen problems they had to handle). You never had any doubts of what to do next whether you were going to an unknown hotel or getting a new flight from an airport. I am very impressed of their service and am not surprised that they for several years in a row are amongst the top-3 of the world’s best airline companies. They got me 20.000 kms without a single hiccup despite huge delays, but DSB can’t get me from home to work (40 kms) without screwing up and not telling anyone what the problem is and when it’s solved.

After these 4 weeks it was a huge anticlimax to come back home. Luckily I am not getting back to work until Thursday, so I have a couple of days to get my mindset back into the usual routines.

It’ll probably take some time to unpack; it’s now Tuesday and it’s still limited how much I have taken out of my bags. I feel like that the vacation won’t be completely over until the bags have been squared away, and I don’t want the vacation to be over. It was awesome, I already miss it.

Oh, by the way. I am freezing my ass off. It’s fucking cold here!

I saw one of the new A380s in Sydney; when getting around in a bus at the airport we got closer to another one - they are huge!

Zoomed out, comparing the A380 to a jumbo jet, the Boeing 747 (to the right), trying to give a better impression of how big it is as people know how large the 747 is.

The plane I flew in Sydney - Bangkok - London. On the side it says "We're with you all the way Qantas Socceroos".

30th - Thus ends the world...

Photos are added to the end of today's post, including the ones that should have been added yesterday. Also, I took a lot of photos of Uluru, so I have just chosen a couple that look good - I have not had the patience to find the best photos. That'll be done when I get hold of a faster computer than this.

Not much to say about today – I did a lot of driving, so it's limited how much else I had time for.

I went to see Uluru during sun rise; the sun rose at 0558, and the national park opens up at 0500, so there was a decent queue at the entrance as I arrived at a couple of minutes past. Saw the sun rise, saw the rock change color, and then I went back to sleep.

After checking out from the apartment, I took some extra day photos of the rock, and then began the long drive to King’s Canyon. It took longer than expected, I didn’t arrive before 1500, and I needed to be in Alice Springs before 2000, as that is when the reception at the resort closes. So unfortunately I didn’t get to walk at the canyon, I quickly took some photos, drove back a little and got a quick lunch and refueling. Drove directly back to Alice from there – only stopped to use the toilet and take a couple of photos on the way. Arrival time? 1940. So I made it, but not without a little stress towards the end.

Since I picked up the car Wednesday (2½ days ago), I have driven more than 1600 kms.

I had dinner at a fantastic place in Alice today; Overlanders Steakhouse. Very simple décor, very rustic, but it fit nicely with the main theme of being a Australian type cowboy restaurant, with appropriate country music in coming out the speakers. I chose their “Drovers Blowout”, which consisted of a chicken & asparagus soup, a tasting platter with a little bit of crocodile, roo, emu and camel, a rump steak and finished off with an apple pie. The most interesting was the tasting platter;

The crocodile; it was served as a normal patty shell (tartelet for you Danes), but instead of chicken in the fill-goo, they had used croc. First impression was that it tasted like chicken, but then an edge of fish came in from the side. Quite interesting. The texture was similar; it looked like chicken and it had the color, but it was more fishlike in the way it fell apart.

The roo; as experienced before, it’s a very dark meat like a normal venison. The darkness comes as a surprise at first, but it’s very good when you get past the initial surprise.

The emu; this reminded me of once long ago I had another bird as dinner – the meat is very dark, and has a very strong taste, almost borderline liver taste, but not as intense.

The camel; probably the most boring piece of meat. Not that it wasn’t good, it just seemed quite normal compared to the other more special experiences. It was just like a very dark steak.

Sitting here again, under the palms, enjoying the temperature, under green lights. Nice.

Leaving tomorrow midday. Damnit. As I predicted I would have liked to have more time here in the red center. When I get home it won’t be the jetlag that kills me, it’ll be getting used to the Danish weather again.

Kata Tjuta. It was difficult getting a photo of the entire thing as it is so big and you therefore need to be at a certain distance to get everything in one shot - and in this heat the distance results in a certain amount of blurryness and paling of colors. They are just as red as Uluru.

Uluru at sun set.

Uluru at sun set - but the photo has been slightly manipulated (or optimized, depending on your preference); made a little darker, intensified the colors and lightened the shadows.

Sun rise.

Another sun rise.

Uluru in day time - app. 1030-1100 today.

How much more Australian does it get than this?!

My nice small terrace, with green light at palms. It is almost midnight and I am sitting outside at still sweating. Life is good!

29th - Uluru and Kata Tjuta

A small note; blogspot is fucking up - I am getting errors when trying to upload images, so you'll have to wait until later to get them. I'm to lazy to go through my text at remove references to the now non-existing photos.

With my trip getting closer to the end, I am now also getting close to having done what I wanted before I’m leaving Australia.

Today I drove from Alice to Uluru – a 4 hour drive, which made me appreciate the car’s air condition. It isn’t cold down here; on the contrary (the reception at the place I am staying at tonight has recorded a temperature of 37°C at 1500 today). So I’m sitting in the car being chilled with comfortable 20°C, and every time I get out of the car I get a slap in the face by the heat. That’s hot!

Along the way there were a couple of places with their own geographic names. But don’t think that it means that it is a town; it’s usually just a tavern/bar/small restaurant, a gas station (or two), maybe a house, a kiosk and a toilet. They were spread out with app. 100 kms in between, so it wasn’t necessary with intense planning to make it through without running out of gas.

I arrived at Uluru and took the first bunch of photos of the rock. What else? It’s more than 300 meters tall and has a circumference of more than 10 kms. Next I went to The Olgas, a bunch of stones similar to Ayer’s Rock but smaller individually. Far away they don’t look like much, but up close you realize how large they actually are.

I went back to Ayer’s Rock to take photos of it in the sunset. I took so many I have no idea if this is the best.

I am staying at Ayers Rock Resort, a place with a capacity of 5000 people. There are several hotels, apartments, a supermarket, a gas station and a shuttle bus going round the area. I think the apartment I’m staying at is intended for people staying a while in the area, as I have a complete kitchen available, dining room, living room, bedroom and large bathroom. Pretty impressive for a single night.

28th - Plain planes

Alice Springs has surprised me a little. Everything is smaller than I thought – I assumed that the flow of tourists would have made this place grow, but apparently that isn’t the case. The airport consists of just one building; a conveyor belt for luggage, a couple of check in booths, a small security area, an Info booth, a small desk where you can get help arranging accommodation, a booth for Hertz, Avis and Budget, two small cafes and a small kiosk. Of cause, it’s close to impossible to get lost and lose your bearings, but considering Alice is the hub you go to if you want to go to the center of Australia without driving, I thought there would be more activity. But I guess not.

That also means that Alice actually isn’t much different from any other small town I have travelled through within the last couple of weeks. Nothing really to see, the only reason you as a tourist come here is to go out of the town, not to stay here.

A proof of there is nothing out here; two of the first signs I saw leaving the car park at the airport were pointing towards Darwin and Adelaide, both app. 1500 km away. On the other hand, it’s the closest larger cities, and who doesn’t want to know how to get back to civilization?

Alice does have something interesting, though; the Royal Flying Doctor Service museum. Australia has the world’s largest air-based medical service, which is dearly needed in the rural areas that covers most of the country. More than 80% of the country is covered by the non-profit organizations’ almost 60 planes, primarily Beechcraft B200 King Airs and Pilatus PC-12s. (The last app. 20% is actually the northern-most area north of Alice in NT, Northern Territory). We saw their radio room at the Alice center, and a map showed where there were access to landing strips; paved and illuminated, rough and illuminated (but often only illuminated by flares, nothing permanently), and just rough (which therefore only can be used in daytime). The rough landing strips are owned by whoever owns the land it’s on, which means that it is the owner’s responsibility to keep it maintained and usable. RFDS actually relies a lot on the population’s donations, as most day-to-day costs are covered by government funding, but due to the requirement that the planes have to be renewed every 10 years they need a steady stream of money (a PL-12, being the cheaper of the two mentioned planes, costs around 6 M AUD). They started off by sending out doctors to areas where needed and transportation of sick people from the bush to a hospital. But they are now also used as a priority transport service between hospitals in major cities; if there is a patient in Brisbane that needs an acute transplantation in e.g. Sydney, RFDS will most probably be doing the transportation.

The De Havilland DH50, called "Victory", the first plane ever used by RFDS
The King Air

The PC12

Woops – that dragged out a little longer than originally intended.

I also got to see some real Australian camels; apparently the Australian camel is the only camel in the world that only has one hump. These were in a paddock, though, so I still haven’t seen any feral ones yet.

G'day mate!

I got a kangaroo today! (but damn, it was hell cleaning the front of the car afterwards! *hurr-hurr*). I had it for dinner at a nice restaurant in Alice. It was actually quite good, but much darker than I had expected. I have always thought of roo meat as white. Not white as chicken, but clearly whiter than e.g. veal. But the color, texture and taste was actually comparable with venison. Not a bad thing, actually.

Right now I am sitting on the terrace of the small half villa I am staying at in Alice. Right outside the terrace is a palm, and above me is a green fluorescent light giving everything a weird green tint. But it actually goes well with the theme; the place is called Palm Resort, after all. And it’s nice and warm with a fresh breeze. Lovely!

27th - 88

“88th floor”. It’s not every day you hear an elevator say that. 9 m/s. 88 floors in 38 seconds. Takes almost 16 floors to slow down to a full stop. Tallest residential building in the world. Tallest building in Australia. Tallest publically accessible floor in the world.

The Heureka Tower in Melbourne is an awesome tower, towering over the other buildings in the surrounding area. You get a great view from the top, but unfortunately it was warm enough to ruin the visibility on the long distances. And a lot of kids. Noisy kids. Very kick-tempting noisy kids. Both when I was up during the day, but also during the night. Despite that it was great getting another perspective to the city.

I went to the Queen Elizabeth market – probably the largest market I have been at for a very long time, and complete chaos. But it was fun walking around the booths, and the building containing butchers, fish shops and delicatessen.

My Visa is screwing up – thank God for Mastercard backup.

I am going home on Saturday. Amazing how time flies. I am leaving for Alice Spring tomorrow morning, but I fear that I will feel that I need more time in the middle.

26th - The waddlers

I picked up my car for the next couple of days this morning. I had made a reservation for a compact (the smallest car they had with an automatic transmission). Something had apparently gone wrong during the transmission from my computer to their system, as they had logged it as a car in the group above the Camry. And not only that –they upgraded me to the group above that for free, as I then would have the GPS unit implemented. Dimensions are more or less the same as the last car, but it’s filled with lovely small features; keyless, GPS unit much better than the previous, better engine and transmission, a small rear camera that get’s activated when reversing – parking the monster just got much easier… Too bad I’m not going to use it much more.

Went a little east before going south down to Phillip Island. I went to the koala conservation center to see their koalas in the open (but still within fences). I think I am getting overloaded with those teddy bears, as I don’t as fascinated by them anymore. Now they almost need to do the tango in front of me to get my attention. It would actually be quite cool if they did that…

I ended the day at the penguin parade; seeing hundreds of Little Penguins come up from the ocean at dusk to get back to their burrows on land was actually quite fun. Small penguins not taller than 30 cm waddle across land and trying to get past the rocks and stones on the beach as fast as possible was more entertaining than expected. Too bad it was chilly and windy as hell. I knew they were small (the world’s smallest penguin race) but they looked even smaller when they waddled past the boardwalk we were standing on just next to their path. We weren't allowed to photograph at the event so no documentation, unfortunately.

25th - Size does matter!

I went to Melbourne’s aquarium today. Pretty average, if it hadn’t been because of their king penguins. I don’t recall having seen them before, but my dad could probably tell you of several occasions where I have seen them. Oh well, never mind about that now. They were pretty majestic (hence the name…), but they weren’t moving much. Flapping their wings, making sounds and just looking good.

I went to watch The Dark Knight at Melbourne’s IMAX theater. That was pretty amazing. It wasn’t the entire film that was in the IMAX format, but the parts that were (mostly aerial shots, the intro, and the action sequence when transporting Dent) looked amazing. The screen was huge, I was sitting on the second row from the back (there where only app. 20 rows) and it was just possible for me to see the entire screen when looking forward.

A normal non-digital movie is filmed on a 35mm film, whereas an IMAX movie is filmed on a 70mm. The surface area of a 70mm can hold 10 of the 35mm film which says a little of the increased resolution and therefore also the possible detail. Because of the size of the reel you can only film 3 minutes of IMAX at a time before you have to enter a new reel. The time it takes to change reels? A couple of hours… 45 minutes of IMAX video results in 4,5 km long filmstrip. No wonder it isn’t many movies that are filmed in this format. The screen here in Melbourne is only the 3rd largest in the world (the one in Sydney being the largest); 32x23 meters (compare that to the one in Imperial in Copenhagen; 15,7x7,4 meters!). The projector is run using two water cooled xenon 15000 Watt light bulbs. Ah, the lovely techno-babble!

And the price for the ticket was less than 100 DKR. Compare that to a ticket at Imperial for a movie that lasts for more than 2 hours. As far as I recall, if you want a good seat, you can easily end up paying 110-120 DKR.

Watching movies will never be quite the same.

24th - The Olympics

I took a walk in Melbourne today to get a look of the near surroundings (I took a short walk yesterday after arriving to get a loose impression of the center of the city). I went south along the Yarra river which has a row club (or more in the one building) which meant that there was pretty intense traffic on the river with 2-8 (+pilot) person rowboats, including their trainers biking along the pathways parallel with the river giving orders in their intercoms. It was actually a little entertaining to look at.

At the point on the river where several chose to turn around and go back.

Following the river it brought me down through the botanic garden, and going through this I came down to Albert Park Lake & Reserve. It is a park with a lake used by a sailing club, so you could see several small boats sailing along in the water. Also quite a lot of birds, especially black swans. To my surprise they were far from as territorial as the swans we have at home; they pet you come close when walking around (less than a meter) without giving a care, even if they have kids (swanlings?) from this year.

Going back I came through the Olympic park with all the arenas and stadiums. Looking at them I thought of all those people who wanted the Olympics to Denmark. Not one of the stadiums where smaller than Parken in Copenhagen, some significantly larger, and there are 5-7 of them. And the Olympics have not gotten smaller since 1956 when Melbourne had it. You guys are fucking naive if you think we will have the space, resources and infrastructure to hold such an event.

The gold winners at the Olympics in '56. Denmark is represented! Sweden is too, but they don't really matter....

I continued on and I came by the city’s IMAX cinema. I expect to go in to watch The Dark Knight there tomorrow. That’s going to be cool…

I think he took the wrong turn somewhere... But he came sailing by in the early evening

23rd - Sand

Driving from Surfers Paradise was hell; as they were readying for the Nikon GPRace in the streets it was difficult finding that one road that would lead me out and north. It took me a couple of attempts, but finally I was on my way to Brisbane.

Arriving Ditte took me out and showed me around in the city. Brisbane is not a city for tourists, so it didn’t really matter that we only spent the one half day to walk around. The next two days, Wednesday and Thursday, would be spent on Fraser Island, the two of us and Ditte’s boyfriend, Klaus. We left early (early as before 0400) to make it to River Head to get the ferry to the Island.

Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island. That means that all roads are sand. And due to the dry weather lately the sand was very dry and soft. So, as our guide and driver said, the ride would be a little rough. I have never been happier for a seatbelt.

Only 4x4s are allowed to the island due to these conditions. But there are no rules to how much experience is needed to drive on the island. In this case a lot of experience was needed to drive in these conditions, something several people realized when we were there. Our guide at one point called them “these inexperienced drivers”, with a short but very noticeable pause before “inexperienced”, saying that it was the nicest he could call them, but thought something else completely.

Oh, well… I will let the photos tell the story. They will be posted in the next couple of posts (and in not so large versions as I usually do) due to blogger's limits when it comes to photos.

23rd - Fraser Island 1/3

The first (or was it the second?) animal we saw at the island was a lizard. Or iguana. Or whatever that type was called. A snake with legs. They are extremely fast, so it was difficult to get a good photo of them. Yes, it is there, even though it might be difficult to see...

The second (or first?) animal to be seen; a dingo. It was just lying there while we drove by. We where told that it was very unusual that they just sat still when we drove close. We also saw two more later during the sunset on the beach, running around. It surprised me, that despite they are wild dogs they have extremely clean fur - they don't look shabby at all.

The bus we drove around in. Our guide is the small guy on the left.

I took an opportunity and got a ride in a plane for 15 minutes to see the island from above. Nobody said anything when our pilot asked who wanted to sit in front, so I grabbed it. Great view, I was sad it didn't last longer.

Beautiful beaches as far as you could see. The island is app. 125 km long and not more than 25-30 km wide and there is almost becahes all the way on both sides of the island.

23rd - Fraser Island 2/3

From up you could get a great view of the forests of the island. For a moment it was possible to forget that you where actually on a sand island. From up you could get a great view of the forests of the island. For a moment it was possible to forget that you where actually on a sand island.

The large sand spot in the top is the dune at Lake Wabby.

On the eastern beach there is a wreck of a ship that worked as a hospital ship during the second world war.

The plane we flew around in.

We came up onto a rock formation, 60 meters tall, going out into the ocean. From there we had a great view up and down the coast and out into the water. From there we got to see quite a few aquatic animals. One of them was this sea turtle - unfortunately this was the best photo I got of it.