KatieTheKat

It's Dec. 29th here, the 28th at home, of course. Katie and I made the long flight from Hobart to Perth today. The big city is a different world after peaceful little Tassie. The first thing that happened was a reality check. On the city bus coming in from the airport there was the usual big city assortment of people. We stopped at one of the suburban communities and a noisy group got on. It turned out that the noise was issuing from one source, an angry young woman who was scolding her mother for being drunk and for forcing her to have to take care of her. Along with them was another sister and brother. The other sister was quiet and the brother subsided after a mild attempt at intervention earned him the threat that he would be lit into if he didn't stay out of the diatribe. The sad thing is that this was an aboriginal group. In Tassie, they have no problems with aboriginal people because they basically exterminated them as soon as they came into conflict with the needs of the white settlers for land and more land. There are lots of politically correct interpretive areas, but the silence of the people echoes. All that are left are a few with very dilute heritage. The experience made me understand once again our privileged but precarious situation in this world.
Katie and are going to do some chores like burning a cd of her camera's memory card for me to take back to Canada, finding a camping equipment store that sells the butane cartridges for my gaz backpacking stove, buying some provisions for the next week. Then we will take a bus out to a small town, Mundaring. It is on the way to the track that we are planning on hiking a few days of. There is an outdoor cinema there which we are looking forward to for some light entertainment before heading into the bush.
Just a few words about the rest of our time in Tasmania. We did the circuit of the Freycinet Peninsula National Park. That brought us to an unbelievably beautiful spot called Wineglass Bay for Christmas day. A classic secluded, white sand, turquoise water beach. The hike was beautiful every step of the way. The wind was strong on one side of the peninsula. I saw a small hawk resting stationary on that wind, looking out to sea. So many shells on the beach, I wished that I could take some home, but Australia has the same expectations about minimal impact that we do. I did collect a handful of the beach gravel made of decomposed pink granite for a young friend who has an aquarium at home. The granite formations were like sculpture, and organic looking at the same time. Part of the hike was in a highland area where we strode from rock to rock.
Well, after Freycinet we decided to go back to the mountains: Mt. Field National Park. We did an overnight hike into Twilight Tarn hut which was constructed in 1923 by an Alpine ski club. One room of the hut had mementos of that time: old wooden skis, photos, etc. They used to take the train up from Hobart on Friday afternoon, hike in carrying gramophone records, evening gowns, high-heeled shoes and tuxedos. Believe me when I say that this is still a remote location. They made them tougher back then! It reminded me of stories that my mom used to tell about bicycling out to Cordova Bay for a weekend of fun at a friend's beach house. She and her sister Jackie would ride back into town to go to work on Monday morning. She said they used to smell people's breakfasts cooking and they'd be so hungry, but happy looking forward to making themselves bacon and eggs before going off to their work.
I am having a stellar, as in 5 star, year. We stopped at fruit stands and bought fresh cherries and raspberries! I was harvesting a handful of berries in my own garden just a few weeks ago, and in another six months the cherry tree will be loaded again. Life is good.
Coming down from the mountains, Katie suggested that we go back out to the coast to a special hostel she camped at when she was bicycling around Tassie 3 years ago. It was good to get one more taste of the sea, and the hostel was so interesting. Limited water and drainage makes it necessary to use composting toilets and save grey water for irrigating the garden. Very ecological.
One last note: Katie was a perfect left-hand driver. She never got muddled or panicked as I would have. She drove confidently and well, she has amazing patience with her mom, and I feel very privileged to be able to travel with her. It's an opportunity that not every woman has.
I will have a few days in Sydney without Katie before my return. She is staying out here in Western Australia for a while longer. I'm looking forward to the challenge of managing on my own. Will I have the courage to go on an overnight bushwalk by myself? (Don't be alarmed, my dear sister, this would be a very frequented, civilized track, not real wilderness.)
Lynne

So tomorrow morning my mom and I are flying from Hobart clear over to the
other side of the continent, to a town many here describe as the foreign
country of Perth.

We spent Christmas Day hiking around Freycinet Peninsula in the sunshine
followed by a dip in the crystal blue waters of Wineglass Bay. Everyone
else says it was chilly but I beg to differ - the water temperature was
perfect.

The fun in the sun was followed by a tramp up to "Twilight Tarn" in Mt.
Field National park last night where we stayed in an old ski hut built in
um I forget but a long time ago. They used to ski in with ball gowns and
tuxedos so they could lounge around the cabin in style. And they had very
large tins of baked beans and biscuits. This morning we hiked out along
"Tarn Shelf" through very cool alpine winds, but now back down at sea
level it is very warm again.

Well, that's about all I have to say at the moment. The next time you
hear from us, we will be out west!

Cheers,
Katie

Lolly wants to know about koalas.
Koalas were lethargic. Their food contains such little nutritional value
that they have to conserve energy. They sleep most of the time. That's
what their claws are for. To hang on to the tree while they sleep. Yes,
the fur is soft, but not as soft as the wombat. A little rough. Koalas
are related to wombats. Both animals have a cartilaginous plate attached
to the pelvis to form a hard rump. Wombats use theirs for wacking
attackers.

In my last I said that we would be out of contact with the world for a
week or so because we were planning on doing the Overland Track. Well, we
couldn't do that so we compromised on hiking in Lake St. Clair National
Park for three days. Highlights of that were close encounters with two
tiger snakes. yes, they're venemous! But, not to worry. No one has died
of a snake bite since the 1970's. The same old story, they're more scared
of us than we are of them. Second highlight was the Acropolis. An amazing
hike that actually required some climbing skills, to a place where columns
of dolorite tower and crumble. We were told it was a bit of a scramble
towards the top. That was an understatement. We shared the summit with a
school group, however. For me the conviviality took the edge off the
wilderness. It was worth the trip to Australia.
By the way, hi to Becca who has posted comments. It's great to feel in
touch with homebase. I had a dream about my class one night, but you had
multiplied. There must have been 120 in the room. I wasn't too sure how
to set about teaching anything. Luckily I woke up.
Katie and I were invited to stay with a couple whom we met on the
trail. So, yesterday we spent the evening in an Australian home talking
about politics, people, and music. We have rented a car for the rest of
our stay in Tasmania. Luckily, Katie has been riding her bike in Sydney
traffic for three months, so it wasn't too hard for her to adjust to
driving on the left. Today we've been playing tourist. Went on a little
nature walk to an aboriginal site first thing in the morning. (By the
way, bannock is called damper here.) Then we stopped at a wildlife park
where they raise orphaned wombats and breed Tasmanian devils. We got to
cuddle Millie the baby wombat and we petted the koalas. We saw kangaroos,
one with a joey peeking out of mama's pouch. Last night, we saw a
bandicoot in our hosts' garden. It's on the endangered species list, so
that was a privilege.
The wilderness is like the land before time here, and the settled
parts are like idyllic English countryside, or at least, the way I would
imagine it to be. Becca confirms my impression by saying in her comment
that it sounds like England. Now I want my next trip to be there so that
I can verify my ideas. It's neverending!
Tonight we're heading up to the northeastern coast. We're hoping to
see penguins. Then we will continue along the coast down the eastern
side. There are Maria Island and Freycinet National Parks to bushwalk in
and to enjoy beaches. This is a real holiday!

From Hobart, as you may recall, our plan was to walk the Overland Track. As I was cleaning up the dishes from our greasy and unfortunately lamby "rissoles" at Narrara Backpackers, however, those plans were dashed by a fellow guest who seemed quite familiar with walking in the Tasmanian bush. He informed me that (1) bookings are required and last he checked, no space was available until the following Wednesday and (2) you are now required to walk from North to South whereas we had planned to start at Lake St. Clair. After considering our options, mom and I decided to stick with our plan to bus up to Lake St. Clair the following morning at 7am and to discuss the possibilities with the rangers there. I knew that at the very least, we could hike th beautiful Mount Rufus track which I had become so enamoured with on my previous visit to Tasmania.

It was odd to ride the bus up over the hills and along the plateau I had cycled through solo 3 years prior. The experience in the bus was so different - I had felt so much more connected with my surroundings when using pedal power. Then again, the experience of waking up at 2am to find my thermarest floating on an inch and a half deep stream which had engulfed my tent during the night was an experience I was happy not to be repeating.

When we arrived at Lake St. Clair, the weather was reasonable, but the forecast did not look particularly promising. We decided to take advantage of the clear skies to hike up to the Pine Valley hut from which two nice dayhikes were possible. In order to arrive before darkness fell, we took the shortcut of hopping on the ferry instead of hiking 5 hours around the lake. It was thus that we managed to arrive at the hut and sent up our tent on a nice squishy mud base and still fall into a deep slumber well before the stars came out. The sighting of 2 tiger snakes at close proximity had only helped to speed the 3 hours walk from the ferry to the hut along.

We awoke the next morning to the sound of raindrops on the tent. Still being very weary, the best course of action seemed to be to go back to sleep. A wise choice. When we were ready, the weather had improved sufficiently that we decided to follow some of our fellow campers up to the Acropolis. What a gorgeous hike! After a short ascent through the woods, we emerged on an open plateau where we pranced along boardwalks through grasslands and boggy areas punctuated by African-looking eucalypts with slender trunks and bushy tops. (Later I learned that eucalypts, well-designed for surviving bushfires, have dormant nodules under their bark ready to sprout out new leaves should their tops be consumed by flames.) After crossing the plateau, we scrambled up to find ourselves perched on the tops of tall towers of columnar dolerite with views of tarns and lakes and peaks all around us.

to be continued... first a few words from mom..

Part two
Turquoise water, rosy sand beach, surfers, swimmers, toddlers in a
nice safe pool built with rocks to stop the force of the waves coming in.
Katie's flatmate said that there had been a 4 metre shark sited close to
the shore on the weekend. Katie and I took shelter from the sun in a
carved out overhang in the striated sandstone. Beautiful swirls of
rust-colour on a creamy background.
Next we bussed downtown. Got out at the Circular Quai where the train
terminus is and where the harbour tour boats come in. We walked around to
the Museum of Contemporary art--free! Well, I guess you get what you pay
for, the artist's name was Erwin Wurmm. Hmmm... our favourite work was a
platform with tennis balls. The observer was to lie down on the tennis
balls and think of nothing. Katie did. I tried the
put-your-feet-in-a-bucket-and-then-put-another-one-over-your-head exhibit.
Sounds like holding a seashell to one's ear. Oh yes, you too could be an
aritist, if you liked: take your favourite "jumper" (an article of clothing
that we Canadians call a sweater) and glue it to a geometric shape of your
choice.
A walk around to the Opera House. I didn't realized that there was so
much texture to the white surface. It was imposing, and larger than I
thought. The steps leading up to it felt megolithic to me. Continued
walking through the Botanical Garden. Huge figs with aerial roots, ibises,
hundreds of flying foxes hanging suspended and fanning themselves in the
sun.
Snack time. Carrying on. We went to the New South Wales State
Library. Beautiful, imposing building in a classic style. There was
another art exhibit there. Much more appealing to Katie and me than the
Wurmmish one. Photography by David Moore. Wonderful black and white
images spanning a good part of the 20th century, from about the 30's to the
70's. They documented all kinds of aspects of history and culture and the
plight of humanity.
Thai food for dinner. Yum!
Long walk back to the flat. Kelly kindly volunteered to drive us to
the airport for our flight to Tasmania this morning as she goes right by it
on her way to work.
Waiting in the airport, Santa Claus came by and frightened a little
girl. It's so odd to see the Christmas decorations in the heat of summer.
I asked Kelly what species is used here for Christmas trees. "Plastic,"
she replied. Oh. Dumb question.
So, here we are in Hobart, Tasmania till tomorrow when we bus to Lake
St. Clair to start the Overland Trail. It, according to the guide book, is
an easy hike that takes five to six days. We've spent the day
provisioning. Hobart is delightful. It's a city that doesn't seem to know
the scourge of The Mall, in the North American sense. I think it would be
the perfect place to come for a relaxing, easy experience of something very
culturally distinct. The temperature is perfect, the air is clean,
everything is well kept up and tidy.
However, the internet access is not very cheap, so I'll sign off and
tell you about our hike when we return to civilised parts in a week or so.
Lynne

As promised, here are some more coherent words about the last couple of days from my mom's perspective:

First Impressions
Somewhere over the Pacific and south of the equator I looked out the
porthole and saw the Pleiades low on the horizon. Up above the Seven
Sisters (another name for that eye-testing cluster of stars) I saw Orion
reclining; the mighty hunter was taking a rest. I couldn't see Taurus, so
I hope that he won't be taking the hero unawares. I can't wait to get out
under the night sky--which will be happening tomorrow night, the first one
of our Overland Trail Trek.
I was spoiled on arrival in Sydney, not only was Katie waiting for me
outside when I cleared customs--the only problem encountered there being
that they had to process my passport separately since it was bent to
conform to my shape rather than that of the electronic scanner--,but
Katie's flatmate, Kelly, was circling around to pick us up and take us back
to the flat in her car. Guess what? In Australia everything (almost) in
built of brick. It was like a city of wise little pigs, all having learned
their lesson and eschewed the wooden house. They have obviously lived in
security from wolves for a long time because the houses are charming with
decorative additions to the facades and interesting alternatives to the
rectangular box.
I was further spoiled by the weather contriving to be a balmy 27
degrees instead of the blistering 40 of a few days ago, or the downpour of
a couple of weeks ago. Katie told me of the weekend disturbances in an
area south of the city where race riots happened just before I arrived. We
saw none of it during our day in the city.
First stop was a trip to the nearby mall. Yes, a shopping mall. I
had to shop, what can I say. Sunglasses and a hat. Now I'm equipped. A
quick stop at the flat to put together some lunch and then we walked to
Maroubra beach. Totally different from Botanical Beach where Katie and I
finished off our Juan de Fuca hike last summer, but reminiscent. Lynne

Last weekend after work I ran to the train station to arrive at the airport in time for my evening flight to Melbourne. I was flying on JetStar, the airline with no assigned seating. I had read reviews saying that boarding was chaotic, but things turned out to be really quite civilized. Though I was nearing the back of the plane, I was able to get a window seat, which is all that I desired. As it so happened, the two girls who happened to sit down next to me started to talk about frisbee and I discovered that they were headed for the same seemingly infamous tourney as I.

When we left Sydney, we saw forks of lightning out the plane's windows. When we arrived in Melbourne, the rain was minimal. When we began a round of ultrastar disc golf, the sky fell down on us in a torrential downpour. One throw was completed before the game was called off. I got a ride with a couple of guys to the hostel I was staying at and we nearly had a rather close encounter with a tram stop due to the lack of visibility.

Saturday morning...
[sorry.. this is an old post that was in progress and never completed.. let me see if I can recall what I was talking about. PS I am now in Hobart with my mom, about to head off on a ~5 day backpacking trip here in Tassie! Anyhow, back to the hat for a moment..]
Saturday morning. I don't know where I was going with that. Probably I was going to talk about the weather. Even though it's such a stereotypically boring subject and I try to avoid it, somehow it always comes back to the weather. Please excuse my rambling.. I have a bit of a cold and am rather sleepy and don't feel capable of any serious thought. Lucky for you, I think my mom is sending me a post shortly which might be more coherent. The weather. Well I will just do away with the suspense and tell you that it turned out to be a gorgeous weekend, despite the gloomy friday. So that's that.

As for the ultimate, it was fun. My team (which sadly was selected by a computer program and not drawn out of a hat at all) went through a number of name changes. First we were "Team 10" then we were "Team 9" for reasons I still cannot comprehend. Then we were just about every possible permutation of "daisy chain cutters" until we finally settled on "Daisy Cutters" towards the end of the day.

I learned some new frisbee games from the Ozzies and also found out that the ones I talked to had never heard of "wickets" "rickets"? ack I can't remmeber what it's called! but anyhow, that game. The most interesting one I learned at the hat was called.. oh man I can't remember what that was called now either. It involved 2+ frisbees, as many people as you wanted, and was sort of a combination of tag, ultimate, box, and football. I'll remember the name eventually.

For some reason I was chosen to represent my team in the limbo competition which took place at the 70's-themed party on saturday night. Needless to say, I brought the team very little glory.

Ok. That's it. Time for a nap or something. Until.. later.

Here it was.. a huge avocado tree right in my own backyard.

And it took me until today to realize it! When I first got here it only bore leaves, I think. Presumably at some point it had flowers, but I don't remember those. Recently I started to see little fruits but without examining them closely, I had no idea what they were. But this swelteringly hot (39C now at 7PM!!) day, I look outside and see hundreds of growing avocadoes! I wonder what one tastes like fresh from the tree. Sadly, I fear that none of them will be truly ripe by next Wednesday morning when I leave this abode, and an unripe avocado probably doesn't taste that great even freshly picked. But I think I will try one anyhow.

Hello all,

I'm surprised that you haven't given up on me altogether, given the lack of new updates lately. But I have good reason! I have been far too busy joining Claus in his whirlwind tour and late night antics to have time for blogging.

He arrived on thursday last week, whatever day that was, sometime in the afternoon. And sure enough, about half an hour before I wrapped up work for the day, he came a-knocking on the office door. We spent the evening down at Maroubra Beach eating some Australian sushi. Even though I'm not much of a sushi connoisseur, I could tell that Vancouver sushi is better despite the fact that I think I am now closer to Japan. The selection was certainly much more limited. Claus then braved the red bean, sticky rice, and green tea ice cream dessert ("you'll never know how tasty it is until you try it!"). Though I am a big bean fan, I can't say that the variety doused in sugar and interspersed with maggoty lumps of chewy rice was quite to my liking.

Friday we met up with some Germans, one of whom Claus had somehow found out about through a german lawyers' travel networking site or something like that. Her name was Kirsten and she was nice enough. The rest of the
group she was with apparently she mostly hadn't met before either. Some of them weren't especially friendly, it seemed, though it was hard for me to know what was going on because for one we met in this super-loud bar where you had to yell at each other to talk and for two they were mostly all speaking in German. Anyhow it was interesting to see what some people seem to consider a good night out. Afterwards Claus and I wandered down to the Opera House and watched some star-like birds circle illuminated as they circled around above the Harbour Bridge.

Saturday we would have gone off hiking, but the weather started wet and the forecast didn't look good, so we decided instead to head out later in the day and to do a boat cruise around Sydney Harbour. It turned out to be quite a nice day, as you will see whn I get some pictures online. That night we met up with a couple of the germans (the nice ones) for a performance at the Sydney Opera House (you can get last-minute tickets cheap an hour before the show). We sat behind the orchestra and had got to watch people banging on kettle drums through a piece by Stravinsky and one by Shostocovich. This was followed by a visit to the "Opera Bar" where our ears were assaulted with a chaos of chatter as we waited out a thunder storm.

Sunday, despite waking up to a grey and wet morning, Claus and I hopped a train out to the Blue Mountains. When we got to Katoomba, the rain was possibly the strongest I have ever seen rain (until Tuesday, but we will
come to that soon). We could see our breath in front of our faces. After hiding out from the downpour for a few minutes and getting a hold of my flatmate Kelly to tell her I had left my keys in my room and that we would need to be let in later in the evening, we headed down the road towards the Three Sisters. Correction. Noticing that we were paralleling the train tracks, we asked for directions, turned around, and then began walking down the correct road. Despite the blanketing cloud cover, there was a busload or two of Japanese tourists at the Three Sisters viewpoint.
You will see from the photos what lovely views there were to be had. We decided to walk down the "Giant Staircase" into the valley. Some time after passing the clearly marked "halfway point", we arrived at a bit of a waterfall. Actually quite impressive by Australian standards. Then I looked up through a small gap in the clouds - wow! A Huge waterfall by Australian standards. And quite spectacular altogether. And higher up the other side, we finally caught some glimpses of the sisters themselves and also espied some patches of sunshine across the vast valley below. Sun was rather rare in Claus' visit, so this is worth noting. That evening
another night out on the town for some dancing at Fret Fetish at the Roxbury. The band was a bit loud for my liking but Claus well, I think his cheering may well have been louder :).

Monday. Monday monday monday. As I write this, it is now a week later and I am having trouble recollecting and also I really sort of just want to go to sleep, but I feel like this blog entry has been put off far too long. Besides that, I did upload the pictures
earlier tonight, so I can delay no longer.

Where was I? Monday. After work, Claus and I met up with German Kirsten and headed for the Orbit bar which revolves around amongst the Sydney skyscrapers affording views around the city. Or so I am told. The problem was that when we arrived the hostess happened to take a look at my footwear. She didn't just happen to, actually - it is a part of her job. No thongs allowed. And no, that does not mean I have taken to wearing racy undergarments. Thongs are what they call flip flops here in Aussieland. That's what I called them as a kid in Oregon too. Apparently the kiwis call them jandals or jandles or something like that. Anyhow whatever you want to call them, they were unacceptable. We were asked to leave. So we decided just to head straight over to the North Shore for our dinner at the Oaks a little earlier than planned. That was fine with me since I was starved. Nevertheless, I was on the lookout for a discarded pair of sneakers all evening, hoping to find something to go back and try getting in with. I would have loved to have had a nice pair of pink fluffy bunny slippers or perhaps some bright red clown shoes.. I wonder how those would have gone over. And why is it that you always see shoes draped over telephone wires except when you're looking for them? Perhaps it is a good thing I didn't chance upon any other footwear that night. After much wandering, we finally found our way to "The Oaks". Claus picked out a dark red kangaroo steak but I just wasn't brave enough and besides my chicken kebab was half the price. We were served our raw lumps of meat, some potatoes wrapped in foil, and could help ourselves to a bowlful at the salad bar. Then it was out to the patio at the back where we grilled our own dinners up over flaming coals. I did try a nibble of Claus' kangaroo but well let's just say that it was not followed by a trip to the grocery store (or the side of the local highway) to load up on kangaroo steaks. The evening was concluded with a nighttime stroll back across the Harbour Bridge, numerous photo opportunities (too bad I was the only one without a camera), and expensive desserts at a harbourside cafe.

Tuesday. ah, tuesday. The night of my Thai Cooking class. I attended that while Claus took on the Orbit Bar again, this time without a thong-sporting bum. Hmm that could be interpreted in more than one way. Anyhow. He made it in. Meanwhile, on the other side of town.. cooking class was fun as usual. This time we made chicken satay with peanut sauce and fish cakes. As I strapped on my helmet, one of my classmates asked if I was looking forward to biking through the river. I was puzzled, since it wasn't raining. I made it about a fifth of the way home and then the skies opened up. Heavy drops crashed onto my face and bare arms. The roads, indeed, became rivers. The water streamed down my back between the pack and me. There was nowhere to hide. I left a large puddle in the entryway when 20 minutes later I arrived at home, somehow. Oh and on the way I shrieked at a couple of pedestrians who nearly placed themselves in a direct collision course with my unstoppable wheels. Why ever can't the weather be so exciting in Vancouver?

Wednesday was Claus' last day in Sydney - I saw him off at the bus stop then rode into the city for my second-to-last Wednesday of tech support.

And there I will stop for now. I need some rest to face my last ever Tuesday of tech support :).

Kat