Day 20: Sydney - By Land & By Sea

Saturday, Feb 25th

It will be hard to top last night's opera performance but here we go.

Two major events were planned for the day; first we traveled around Sydney and the “burbs” by van for a general tour and then we followed-up with a waterside tour of the harbor by boat. This turned out to be a great combination made even better by near perfect Sydney weather.

Lindsay, our tour driver for the morning, picked us up around 8:30 AM for the landside tour. The itinerary included:

• The Rocks
• The Sydney Harbor Bridge
• Manley Beach
• Bondi Beach
• Rushcutter’s Bay
• The Gap
• Double Bay
• Rose Bay
• Mrs. MacQuaries Chair
• A variety of significant Sydney buildings and establishments. 

Lindsay even offered shopping tips to those so interested.

A little after noon, we arrived at the wharf area of the Rocks and boarded a 50+ foot power boat for our cruise. Captain Tom and his mate Scotty welcomed us aboard. We travelled throughout the harbor heading west toward the Gap, the point where ocean going ships arrive and depart Sydney Harbor. We passed the Opera House, the Australian Naval Station where Jack waxed poetically as we passed by two Australian Navy FFG ships of the Perry Class. Continuing on we found a leeside anchorage for a pleasant lunch of prawns, steak, salmon, salads and anything and everything one could want to drink. When the subject of Vegemite arose, the skipper went to the galley and returned with lightly toasted bread with butter upon which he had applied a light coat of Vegemite. We tried the Vegemite; I'll leave it to the individuals to discuss their personal opinions of the Australian delicacy. We passed beneath the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the ANZAC aka Madonna’s Bra Bridge and ultimately returned to the wharf around 5 PM.

The tours complimented each other very well; the guide and boat crew provided excellent commentary and information on the city. There are too many details to put down on paper so we’ll let some of the pictures tell the story.

As for the balance of Saturday, for dinner, we were unable to get seats at The Quay so we opted for the “best pizza place” in Sydney, The Australian Hotel. The pizza was great though no one ordered either the “roo” or “croc” pizzas. The food was great, the drinks were good and the general atmosphere was enjoyable following a day on tour and on the water. Oh, did I mention that at The Australian Hotel, the sights were also entertaining; kids a third of our age dressed in duds that probably cost more individually than the total of what our group of eight was wearing.

We followed dinner with a short walk to the city quay and found a place to have dessert. Several of us had dessert but none topped Denny’s extremely high lemon meringue pie.

We were back in the hotel around 10 PM as the night wound down for the MART 2012 crowd.


We'll let the pictures do the talking!

Day 19: Figaro, Figaro, Figaro or Not?

Friday, Feb 24th

This morning we departed from Cairns bound for Sydney arriving at The Four Seasons mid-afternoon. After check-in we all moved into our rooms, some went walking others sat back and relaxed in eager anticipation of tonight's operatic event of a lifetime.



Chris and Denny had identified Giovanni's Italian Restaurant as a potential early dinner spot and by 5:30 PM we were seated and ready to order. This was another great meal, whether it was pizza, gnocchi, risotto or fish, all agreed that this was a good choice.



Once dinner was completed, we were off to the Sydney Opera House, not just to tour but to actually experience an opera.

It's hard to explain just how excited I was about the evening's event, however I will try. For me this was to be like:

• Having a root canal or maybe two
• Watching paint dry
• Watching moss grow on a rolling stone
• Dragging nails down a chalkboard

I'm sure you get the picture.



We arrived at the Opera House by taxi and proceeded to climb the lofty entrance stairway. As done by so many, we stood around waiting for the doors to open, the air of excitement building every minute. We were watching people, people were watching us.

And then it was showtime.

For those of you unfamiliar with opera let me offer a brief explanation. It's something like football, there is/are:

1. Stadium seating
2. A band
3. Antagonists and protagonists
4. A "Jumbo-Tron" for keeping up with the songs and play acts.
5. Four quarters divided in the middle by a 20 minute halftime when everyone goes for food, drink and rest room relief. During halftime the team (cast) re-groups and gets ready for the 2nd half.
6. An interminable fourth quarter, it seems to go on forever. 
7. A cheering and applauding crowd.

Tonight's show was The Marriage of Figaro. In case you have yet to see it, I won't spoil it for you by revealing the plot, then again I'm not sure there was a plot. One of the things that is apparently important for opera is to have a stage and/or prop malfunction as in this performance there seemed to be several such events including a "time-out" (refer to football analogy) in the first quarter to fix a set or prop.

For any of you that might be concerned that you wouldn't understand an opera as it would likely be in Italian or German, fear no more. This opera was spoken and sung in English, on top of that if you didn't understand English the "Jumbo-Tron" scrolled the words to parts of the show again in English.

To be fair, if the eight of us were polled on the enjoyment factor of the opera, the vote would come in at 7 to 1 in favor. So, for those who enjoy opera, this was an entertaining show and would be looked upon favorably as a highlight of the Australia trip.

For me, I am somewhat in fear that the show never actually ended. Remembering that this was an opera and it was entitled The Marriage of Figaro, I have two concerns:

1. Unless, I missed it, the fat lady never sang.
2. The people applauded, curtain was drawn and the lights came on, but I never heard the famous line, "Figaro, Figaro, Figaro".

Following the show we made our way back to the hotel to prepare for Saturday's tours.

Take a brief YouTube tour of the Sydney Opera House.

Day 18: Cape Tribulation & The Daintree River

Thursday, Feb 23rd

"Happy Birthday to Chris" 

Not too many can say that they celebrated their __th birthday in Queensland, Australia.

By 7:30 AM we were away from Palm Cove heading north on the Captain James Cook Highway. Today we were with a larger group, including the eight of us we had a total of 23 on the tour bus or truck as some would later call it.

We progressed north from Palm Cove toward Port Douglas and Mossman, Queesland. En-route we crossed the crocodile infested Daintree River by ferry arriving at the Daintree Environmental Centre for morning coffee and tea followed by a boardwalk "eco-tour" of the local rainforest. In addition to the boardwalk, the centre had a 75 foot tower that allowed for viewing the forest canopy from above, albeit after climbing a fair number of steps. 

Here's the best we could do for the elusive Cassowary bird.

 We later reached the beaches of Cape Tribulation where 

Pat, Diane and Sheila had time for a walk on the beach.

Throughout our journey one is constantly reminded that though the beaches are beautiful, you really can't go in the water because of the crocodiles and stinging jelly fish.

As an aside, by late morning Denny had made several hundred attempts to photograph the Ulysses Butterfly, a brilliant blue flyer seen frequently on this trip. I'll provide an update on his progress/success later. As you can see below, he is ready with camera at hand just in case there is a flyover by one of the "big blues".

Have I mentioned that it was relatively hot and muggy?

Lunch was served alongside a tributary of the Daintree River. It was not clear as to why the crocs stayed away from this river, nevertheless, 23 went to the river and 23 returned.



Today's lunch included steak (should have been made into shoes or belts), sausage (very tasty), fish, salads and drinks.


Jack brought some bread down to the creek to stir up the fish; fortunately his action and that of the fish did not awaken any of the more dangerous creatures (aka crocs) lurking in the area.

As we headed back to the bus, someone pointed out the large Golden Orb Spider hanging over the trail. Apparently there were also spiders in the port-a-johns, so some decided that the urge to go was not so urgent.




To catch up on "people shots", here are a few from the day.

Denny finally succeeded in taking several photographs of the Ulysses Butterfly, this one was significantly slower than the many we had seen before. Well truth be told, this one was actually pinned to a collector's display board, nevertheless he did get the shot.

Moving on, the Daintree River Cruise provided our chance to see the estuarine saltwater crocodile. Sure enough they were there, a small one (3+ feet in length, estimated at 2 years old) and the mom (6-7 feet in length, estimated at 25 years old). Also saw two Azure Kingfishers. 

The final stop of the tour was at Mossman Gorge, a recreational section of the Daintree National Park. Here we walked across a swinging bridge and, for a few intrepid travelers, including Sheila it was a chance to wade into the river (how quickly one forgets about the crocs)!

We arrived back at the hotel around 6 PM and concluded the day with dinner at Far Horizons.