Our last day in Australia -- A day to trek

Since no one needed to talk with either Bill or me at the Uni today, Miriam took us trekking ... and wow, what an experience.

First, we headed to New England National Park which is a rainforest. For those of you who haven't visited a rainforest, I hope the pictures will give you an idea of the beautiful green colors, the different types of trees, moss fern and some flowers. To reach the rainforest, we had to cross this stream that had come over the bridge.





This was one of the outlooks before we started our steep ascent into the rainforest. That's a white mist fog that is behind us ... no view.ll













This was a waterfall that we walked behind.







Next, we drove on to Cathedral Rocks National Park. We saw these roos as we were driving into the park.











See that rock in the distance .... that's cathedral rock .... that's where we are headed and yes, we have to crawl over those boulders. Carl, Shan, and Winter better be impressed. The pic below is taken almost at the top of cathedral rock.







Working our way back down.


Here we are back down off the boulders.


Miriam and Bill are next to a huge, beautiful fern.



Taking a break by the stream before we head back to the car to head home. I think I used muscles I didn't know I had but I'm sure I'll feel them tomorrow as we fly back home. I'm hoping I can make it in the airport.


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Location:New England National Park and Cathedral National Park

Around Paul and Miriam's House

Had a new experience today ... tasting figs right off the tree





Yep, that's a fig. It's a flower inside a fig pod. Delicious!!!

And, of course, I need to post more bird pics


Right outside Paul and Miriam's window in her garden was a Crimson Rosella.

On our drive to Dangars Falls, we saw a Willy Wagtail bird


And a Bell Miner bird that sounds just like a bell.



In the evening, we had a movie with our dinner -- The Gods Must Be Crazy. Laughed and laughed out loud throughout the whole movie.

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Location:Armidale, NSW

Before Flying back to Armidale

Before we fly out, we have a couple hours. We decided to walk down to the market in Melbourne. Lots of booths, lots of things to purchase, meats, fruit, vegetables, clothes, jewelry and some folk music. If you've ever been to Seattle's Pike Place market, it similar to that. Beautiful colors, wonderful smells - it's hard to leave this place.







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Location:Melbourne to Sydney to Armidale

Around Armidale

Decided to go for a walk before we had meetings with some of the faculty at the Uni (that's short for University of New South Wales). Miriam wanted to take us to Blue Hole, a National Park, for a long walk. As we drove there, it was evident that the past week of rains had a impact. The dirt roads were slippery and muddy. They were out with graders to make the road more passable.






Unfortunately, once we got there, we found that the bridge we needed to use was about 2 meters (24-30 inches) under water. Miriam took off her sneakers and walked through water to check out the bridge and decided that we couldn't risk it.


So we left there and went to Danger Falls again to get a little walk and to check out the water.






Water was rushing over the falls. AND, we got to see some Rock Wallabys who make their home in Dangars Falls National Park.



Here's another thing we saw in the park



A dragonfly

On the way back, we saw some merino sheep and a cute mailbox






That's it for now.

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Location:Armidale, New South Wales

Explore an Organic farm

Taking one of the cable cars, we headed about 4 hectares north of Melbourne to CERAS, a not for profit educational organisation located on rehabilitated landfill in East Brunswick, Melbourne.








They had a cafe and a farmer's market. Lovely day with Elodie and her cousin who works at CERAS and Paul. If you'd like to read more, here's their website. http://www.ceres.org.au/


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Location:New Brunswick, north of Melbourne

A Walkabout Melbourne

We have finished our intensive course in community based social marketing and had some time for a walk down the streets of Melbourne. There is a mix of old and new buildings as you'll see in this photo with the ironwork on the homes and some high rises directly behind them.



An old church

Trolley cars take you all over the city.


Down by the river you find a bridge built in 1888 ...


And a newer one



As we walked down the street, it reminded me of the stores along the boardwalk because they were all open fronts with their merchandise right out front. There were people selling things right on the sidewalk, as well. very much like New York.

Here's a pic of one of my meals ... Lamb ... Delicious. But this was my appetizer. Lots of good meals.



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Location:Melbourne Australia

Flying to Melbourne via Sydney

Flying from Armidale to Sydney is very much like flying from the University Park Airport, small plane but great service. Here's a shot out my window.




Ok, now I'm impressed. On our flight to Melbourne we have the use of an iPad for movies and music.

Here are some of the buildings we saw on our walk about Melbourne



Flinders Rail Station built in 1910 and Australia's oldest rail station.




A bath house built in 1860

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Location:Close to the heavens