Hold It, Now Hit It

Right, so, this whole blog about me and Jackie's adventures in the merry old land of Oz is gonna have to go on holiday for a while. I'm leaving for India in a week and I won't have my laptop or my photo archives with me while I'm away. Also, my free trial version of Adobe Lightroom, the software behind the blog, is expiring in 2 days, so no more photos after that until I can afford the full version. I imagine once I'm back and settled in the home of apple pie and football with pads, sometime around the middle of May, I'll have plenty of time to go back and post all the rest of our photos from the NT (there are some really cool ones still to go) and our last weeks in Melbourne. In the meantime, I've started my own blog to record my solo adventures here in Brissy and in India and Germany over the next couple of months. It's mostly just so I can remember, but y'all are welcome to look, too: http://frogs-eye-view.blogspot.com

OK, bye for now. Thanks for following our adventures and I'll see you all in a couple of months. Lots of Love,

Fred.

NT Part 3: Rock Art Sites

One of the cool things about Kakadu is the Aboriginal rock art you can see at various sites around the park. Me and Jackie went to two of them.

Our first afternoon in the park took us to Nourlangie Rock. That's it at the top of the photo on the left.


Here's Jackie driving our rental car into the park. Her first ever driving on the wrong side of the road. She did a great job driving, but could never remember to wave to the other drivers (standard NT road etiquette)

Driving into the park we stopped for lunch and these guys greeted us outside the little cafe where we ate. Oh, and the cafe was cool 'cuz it had a huge tank in the middle with big barramundi - a big yummy fish, sort of like the bass of the NT.




But anyway, back to the rock art. This is at Nourlangie Rock, as I said, on our first day. Coming from the scorching daytime sun into these shaded, breezy rock overhangs certainly makes you feel like they'd be a good place to hang out back before there were swimming pools and A/C.

Here's Jackie's outfit for the hike. Classic. Notice the shirt in her right hand for keeping the flies away. And we were drenched in insect repellent.



This is one of the most famous bits of Aboriginal art around. You see it all over the place here, on postcards, in ads, etc.


Here's another view of Nourlangie:
A couple of days later, after the yellow water tour, we went to another place called Ubirr. As we were waiting for the gates to open (the only way not to die of heat exhaustion is to get up and do stuff at the bum crack of dawn) we went down to check out this crossing of the East Alligator River, which is the boarder between Kakadu and Arnhem Land, a huge chunk of country controlled by traditional aboriginal owners and where white fellas can only go with special permission. Stick that in your peace pipe. We also met a lovely local who told us you can often see crocks sun-baking on the concrete here.
Ok, but enough blah blah from me: On to some photos from Ubirr itself...


































That's it for now. More soon.

NT Part 2: Yellow Water

After Litchfield, we spent another night in Darwin, then drove into Kakadu National Park, a world heritage site owned by traditional Aboriginal people. The park is an amazing combination of landscapes - most of it is a sort of scrubby tropical bush, but there are also massive rock escarpments, wetlands, coastal mangroves and beaches (unfortunately not accessible to our car).

This is a bit out of order, but on our second day in Kakadu we took an early morning boat cruise of the Yellow Water wetland. It was a highlight among highlights and yielded some of my favorite shots from the trip. Enjoy.







I see you, you sneaky croc!








Sea Eagles are way cool. There were heaps of them.


They call this a Jesus Bird 'cuz it looks like it can walk on water.



























These Cormorants don't have as much oil in their feathers as ducks and a lot of other water birds, so after they dive to get a fishy, they have to stand with their wings out to let them dry in the sun before they can fly. Now think about this - you have to stand on a log in croc infested water for 15 minutes and not move every time you want a meal. Talk about a stressful existence.









Cute green duckies.












This is back at the resort where we stayed for 2 of our 3 nights in Kakadu. That's our door on the bottom left there.






















Jackie is happiest in the pool.








We wanted big pink drinks with umbrellas for this shot, but they were kinda expensive, so we went with cans of VB. Worse things have happened. Cheers from the Top End, ya'll.

NT Part 1: Litchfield

My Christmas present to Jackie this year was to take her on a trip to the Northern Territory. She hadn't seen nearly enough of the iconic Australian landscape and I wanted her to have at least a couple of desert/croc type stories, not just cappuccino and envi. policy. The NT is a big chunk of Australia that covers the north-central coast and down into the Red Centre so it has a bit of everything. We flew into Darwin, went to sleep and got up very early the next morning to go on our tour of Litchfield National Park.

This is the wetland we crossed to get to the first bit of our tour:
We started out with something terribly touristy, but great fun - the Jumping Crocs tour! They take you out on a river in a boat and dangle bits of meat over the side and...yeah:
These guys weren't huge - maybe 6 or 7 feet from nose to tail, but big enough. And look at that vertical! They were also throwing little chunks of meat for the birds of prey in the area. Not a great photo, but you get the idea:

This one's for you, Jack.


What? I need a reason
to take a photo of a
cute dog in a truck?














Next we stopped off to look at some termite mounds. This one is a called a cathedral mound and is about 50 years old. They look sort of crumbly and sandy, and they are made of sand, but the termites use their spit to hold the thing together, so it's actually hard as rock and not crumbly at all.

The other kind of termite mounds are these magnetic ones. They're basically 2 dimensional and every single one of them points directly to magnetic north. If they're off by a single degree, the whole colony dies. In the morning, when the sun shines on one side, they all work on the other, then switch in the afternoon. Clever bloody termites.




After a bit of lunch and a chat with an extremely boisterous Kansas frat-boy on holiday with his grandma, we stopped at this loverly waterfall for a bit of a swim. There were fruit-bats in the trees and fishies swimming around us in the water.













These pretty green ants are common in the Top End (the local name for the tropical noth of the NT). They build nests by using web-like stuff to stick leaves together. You can tell how bad the wet season flooding is going to be by how high up the ants build theirs nets. I also wanted to show off my ultra cool new close-up lens (this guy is about half an inch long).


Next we went for a swim at this really cool system of rock pools leading up to a big waterfall. Some people said they saw goannas (really big lizards) but we missed them.



















OK, so maybe my outfit for the Cup was nice, but Jackie still looks better in a bathing suit.

Our last stop was at a funky little store for afternoon tea. That big tree isn't covered in vines - that's it's roots. Cool huh? They were selling mangoes at inflated tourist prices, but they were still pretty.

To be continued... (ooo, dramatic!)

A Day at the Races

Australia is sport crazy. A good example is the Melbourne Cup. This race is such a big deal that Everyone in Melboure officially gets the day off work. And, after taking Jackie on the trashiest date in the world (see below) I had to show her a fancy time and take her. One has to get dressed up when one goes to the Cup. Ladies need hats - the more extravagant the better, and dudes need suits. So here we are before leaving to take the oh so glamorous tram to the Flemington Raceway.
Jackie Here: Fred looks freakin' amazing. I'm sorry everyone has to see me as an orphaned cancer patient. I really just shouldn't be allowed to dress myself.



Jackie here: Here's my version of that pic. It looks so much better without me in it. And, sorry, I'm not trying to be pathetic or self-degrading, I just think this photo is better without me. Common' it's not hard to see Fred's lookin' gooood.



Oh yeah, I got a haircut for the first time in 11 years. And that suit was $30...score. Here's us doing our Blues Brothers pose, as per Jackie's request:
When you enter the raceway, there's this long alley of roses which makes for a cool entrance. Jackie: Despite my sourpuss faces, I really did have a good time. I was just staring at people because they looked out of place. Kinda like all dressed up and nowhere to go.
The main thing about the races, apart from the betting and drinking, is the outfits. Here's a small sample of what was on the in crowd: Jackie: These are just fantastic. I didn't even notice half of these people walking around. Everyone just looked crazy.

After looking around for a bit, we placed our bets using Jackie's Nanny's tried and true method of betting birthdays. We went with 5 and 2. We then made our way down to the track. Here's Jackie at our spot near the track with the stands in the Background. I think there were about 100 thousand people there all together.
No, no - I really am having a good time here. I swear...
AndheretheycomedownthefinalstretchDeltaBluesaheadbyahalf!

And guess what? We won! Who could lose with a name like Delta Blues? Our winnings just about paid for our champagne. Jackie Here: Fred still looks amazing even though it was really windy and cold that day.

Jackie went home a bit before me and I hung out taking pictures of the bookies. I loved this lady bookie with her big wad of cash.

We have a winner!

Finally, it gets to that point in the evening where it's time to take a nap in a pile of garbage. Ahh, Melbourne - Classy only to a point, y'know?Awright, that's it for the Cup. I think we're almost to the crocs now. Stay tuned...
The Cup was a really amazing day. I've never been to anything like it and for no other reason than that, was it great to be there. Fred was fantastic at showing me around and being a good chat buddy on the hour and half line we had to wait on for coffee. Thanks, Fred!!

There's No Business Like...

Also in Spetember, the Royal Melbourne Show came to town. The show is basically the Aussie version of the State Fair; rides, cotton candy ('fairy floss' in Stryne), giant Homer Simpson dolls, etc. When we were kids we loved it, and our parents hated it almost as much. I went for the photos and dragged Jackie for the cultural experience. It's a totally different side of Melbourne which is usually all cafes and intelectuals, so it's a nice break.

I was looking at this crazy ride above Fred's head. Fred takes so many pictures sometimes I forget he's still taking them. I was fascinated by the swirling lights and screaming people.

This girl working at one of the games saw me taking photos and joked that she hoped one didn't end up on the internet...
One thing that's particular to the Show is showbags. This is where they take $5 worth of candy, stick it in a bag with an inflatable rubber mallet and sell it for $15. It always amazes me how much money some people spend on them - walking around with maybe 20 or 30 bags full of nothing that will last them more than a month. I got Jackie a Kit-Kat showbag ('cuz that's what you do when you take your girl to the Show) and it came with a yo-yo. Sweet. Jackie, here. and um, yeah, that bag was delicious. And my yo-yo lit up! Dude, how cool?!
Later in the week I went back alone to get some more photos. On Besha's advice I went to have a look at the Arts & Crafts Pavillion. There's something really funny to me about a glass case full of prize-winning fruitcakes.
The wedding cake display:
While my attempts to document the blatant animal cruelty going on in the petting zoo didn't come out too well, I did catch this for Jackie:
Jackie here: Llama face!!!!!!! Oh man, if ever Fred has taken the perfect picture to show his love for me, this is it!
And what fair would be complete without Carnies? For a guy who works for an amusement company, he doesn't look very amused.
At the end of the night I saw this disguarded prize with it's stuffing being blown around the empty grounds like some greusome snowdrift.
That's it for the Show. Next post - Ponies!

Gridiron Is For Pansies

Back in September the Australian Football League had its Grand Final between The West Coast Eagles and the Sydney Swans. Jackie and I went to a few matches during the season and we were able to take Syd and Grace while they were visiting, too. We couldn't afford tickets to the Grand Final, so I decided to check out some of the places where they had big screens set up for people to watch the game for free.

This was the scene in just about every pub in town:
Federation Square in Downtown Melbourne was packed with people watching on the big screen:
They also had screens set up at the old Richmond football ground, near the MCG where the big game was being played, so I hung out there for the rest of the action.
It was a good game, and the end was especially close so there were lots of tense moments and mini-celebrations.

Eventually, the West Coast Eagles came out on top, and there was much rejoycing.

We do love our footy. Next post, we go to the Show!

Jackie, here. I have to admit. Footy is amazing. And, quite frankly, I have lost what little respect I had for American Football because, MAN! are those footy guys amazing. Woo! Hopefully I'll be able to find a game or two on one of my mom's 400 cable channels.