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Saying that you’ve snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef is a little like saying that you’ve been to Japan. TheReef and Japan are about the same size–with the Reef being under water and Japan being above. The Reef stretches nearly 1200 miles along the eastern coast of Australia.

The first port on our cruise along the eastern coast of Australia was at Cairns, which is one of the jumping off points to visit the Reef. We booked our excursion throuh the cruise line, but we learned that there is are any number of other outfitters who will take you to the Reef. The chief advantage of booking through the cruise line is that if you are delayed for any reason, the ship will wait for you.

From the ship, we boarded a big catamaran with about 150 of our best cruise friends, and rode about 90 minutes out to the Reef where we docked next to a large covered platform that just sits out on the ocean. The platform looked like a very long quanset hut with a canvas roof and open air sides. The canvas was covered in bird poop, and smelled like poultry barn.

The platform had snorkeling, an underwater viewing area as well as a glass-bottomed boat that were included in the $249 tour price. If you wanted a helicopter ride, that was an additional $138 for a 10-minute ride, and if you wanted to snorkel with a marine biologist outside the “regular” snorkeling area, that was an additional $35. We declined the add-ons.

The snorkeling area ran along one side of the platform. Australia is full of things that are poisonous to humans, including jellyfish. We were debating whether we needed to wear the spandex “stinger suits” when we got in the water, but after the glass-bottom boat driver told us his tale of “crying like a little girl” and spending a week in the hospital after being stung by a jelly in New Guinea, we opted to wear the suits, which decrease your risk of being stung by 75%.

The water was warm and the coral and fish were wonderful. THe corals were white, and pink, and green, and lavender, and yellow and bright blue. There were lots of brightly colored fish about, in a variety of sizes.

After about an hour in the water, I had to get out to warm up. Then it was time to watch the fish-feeding frenzy, and time for the 90-minute boat ride back to the ship.

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Posted on April 5, 2013

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We flew from Sydney to Ayers Rock on March 25 on a beautiful Qantas airliner. Domestic flights in Australia are quite a bit more laid back than those in the States. No one at the Sydney airport even asked us for identification, and we were able to bring filled water bottles and did not have to remove our shoes. It was a nice throw back to air travel in the 1980s.

Ayers Rock is pretty much in the center of Australia in the red desert. It is really a long way from anywhere, although there was more vegetation than I had expected.

There is only one resort at Ayers Rock, with a variety of accommodations. We stayed at the Pioneer Outback Hotel, which is at the end of the shuttle bus route that goes in a constant loop to take you from one end of the resort to the other. All of the accommodations are made of cinder block, to keep the termites at bay.

Once we got off the shuttle bus, the first thing we noticed was the flies. None of the guidebooks mentioned the flies, or if they did, I somehow missed the warnings. The good thing about the flies is that they didn’t bite. Many tourists wore fly nets to keep them off their faces, but we decided to tough it out. After while, you just stop swatting, because it is too much work in the heat to keep swatting.

We took the sunset tour to Ayers Rock, which is also known as “Uluru.” (Accent on the last syllable.) Uluru is the Aboriginal name, and when the Australian government returned the Rock to the Anangu people (I think it was in the 1970′s), they decided to change the name back to the traditional name of “Uluru.”

As we left the van, the tourguide from SEIT offered us a “fly cream” made of rosemary and cedar oil for our faces, and it did help a bit with the flies.

The big red monolith is beautiful, and has a spiritual aura about it, if you are into such things. Most Australians, are not, however. We have been doing an informal survey of Aussies, and only about 10% of them have been to Uluru. Mostly they say it is just a big red rock, and that they can go abroad for about the same price as a ticket to Ayers Rock; and most of them choose to spend the money to go abroad.

For us, however, it was an opportunity to experience the vastness of the Australian Outback, and was well worth the cost of the ticket.

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Posted on April 2, 2013

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As we disembarked the train from Parramatta to Penrith and walked to the shuttle bus that would take us to the 2000 Olympic Rowing racecourse, the acrid smell of controlled bush fires filled the air, and smoke was visible in the foothills of the Blue Mountains. The smoke continued to waft across the racecourse, making it difficult to see more than about 1000 meters down the course.

Soon, the local parrots, which had spent the night roosting high in the tall gum trees, awoke, and they greeting the early morning light with raucous cacophony. (We learned, first hand a couple of days later that they do the same in the evening.) When they were done, the local cicadas–which reminded me of rattlesnake sounds–took over the merrymaking.

We were on our way to the 2013 Samsung World Rowing Cup 1 in Sydney, Australia, held March 22-24, 2013.

The racecouse–about an hour west of Sydney Harbor by train on the Green line–is one of the most spectator-friendly rowing courses I’ve been to. There is a large south-facing covered grandstand. In the southern hemisphere, this means the sun never shines into the stands, keeping them relatively cool. The seats have backs–always a plus for spectators—and the grandstand is low and near the lanes–also great for spectators!

Megan had secured passes to the VIP lounge for us, which meant that we had access to the VIP lounge, and got to hob-knob with the FISA crowd. Shuttle busses ran from the racecourse to the train station, which made transportation easy.

The conditions at the course were nearly perfect during the entire regatta. Congratulations to all of the US rowers who came home with medals! This included Megan and her boatmates who brought home a silver medal in the W4x! The regatta had many entries from Pacific Rim countries, but relatively few from Europe.

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Posted on March 31, 2013