New Year's Eve in Sydney

We arrived in Sydney and took a cab over to our hotel in North Ryde, a northern suburb. It is amazing how much things cost here, the fare was $91! We checked into the hotel and asked the concierge about where we can go see the fireworks tomorrow.  He suggested that we go to the train station about 1 block away and take the train downtown, and then follow the crowd. I had done some research before I left home and knew that there was a park not too far away that had a perfect view of the harbor bridge and the opera house called Blue Point Reserve and it turns out it is only about a kilometer walk from a train station. So we had a late breakfast, walked up to the train station, and bought a 1 week rail/bus/ferry pass for each of us, knowing we were going to travel about the city for the next few days and it would be much cheaper than our original “Cab Plan”.  So we bought seom snacks for the day. Check out the pineapple flavored M&M's. The snacks are very different here in the land down under!

The train system here is awesome, quick, efficient, informative, and very clean. The gates at the park (free), didn’t open until 12 PM, so we boarded the train at 11AM, and walked the short distance down to the park. Guess what, they didn’t open the park at 12, they started searching bags at 12 to prevent folks from carrying in alcohol, so there were already thousands of folks there.   

We wandered around a bit before Jenn found a shady spot (summertime here) for us to spend the day waiting for the show.  See my feet below, we were right in the middle of the Sydney Bridge!

We settled in and began our wait. We soon began a conversation with 2 lovely ladies Cass & Nat (1 from Sydney, 1 from Perth), and spent the rest of the day in awesome conversation with them. 

We talked about all kinds of things, each giving their insights into their respective countries. We laughed a lot and talked a lot about food differences. We had to explain the nuisances of Pecan Pie, while Cass tried to explain Vegemite. Nat said that during her visit to the states she fell in love with “Denny’s” and Cass said she really wanted to eat at an IHOP someday.  In a display of international detant, I promised Cass we would eat some Vegemite and Tim-Tams (chocolate covered cookie)  before we left. Really intense conversation “international” discussions, and I am sure the world is a better place as a result of this chance encounter. What a great way to spend the day, great company, great weather, and a tremendous view.

 Nighttime finally came, and by the time the show began it was standing room only, 10’s of thousands of people. 

We had strategically positioned ourselves along a short stone wall during the day so the height impaired among us (me, Erin, Cass, Nat) would have a great view once thing started.

 As the crowd started to build during the day, I remained vigilant to “defend the wall”, as everyone began to see the advantage of our position. After many failed assaults on our position, we could finally climb up on the wall as the show began, and what a show. The local paper said that they spent $7.6 million on the show including 11,000 mortars and 25,000 rockets, colors and combinations I have never seen before. JUST WOW.  We could only get video of the fireworks, so check out Jenn's picture section for that. Again the view, the company, the weather, the show couldn’t have been better.  Jenn and I look at each other during the evening and although we didn’t speak, I know she was thinking the same as me, “ What a perfect night, and how lucky we feel to be here”. 

We watched the shows, but had to wake Erin up for our last one, then we bade farewell to our new Aussie friends and headed for the train. Thank god for my days of playing football. In working our way back to the station, with Erin’s hand firmly in my grasp, I lowered my shoulder and just pushed my way through the crowd, clearing a path for Erin to follow, knowing Jenn would follow close behind. We finally got back to the train and were soon back at the hotel. A great day and we feel blessed to have experienced it.

Farewell Melbourne......Hello Sydney

I got up at my normal 6:00 AM local and finished reading a motorcycle book that Sandy had procured from the local library, Is that Thing Diesel?.

A book that a local wrote about riding an 8 HP Bio-Diesel motorcycle all the way around Australia. Pretty interesting and the author was pretty entertaining. I find myself up before anyone else and I usually have about an 1 ½ hours before others start to stir, which provided me some quiet time each day. Others began to arise as I finished the book, Sandy prepared another wonderful meal, and we headed out to the Queen Victoria Market here in Melbourne.

It was established around 1850 and has been in continuous operation daily since then. Pretty cool place, where you can get anything from fresh slaughtered pig to fine pottery.  Not sure what a  Bay Bug is!

There are still old metal rails crisscrossing the ceiling where they would kill the animals in one section, hook them up, and then push them to each section to prepare the animal until arriving at the final “butcher” station. See them up to the left?

 Reminded me a lot of the old Lexington Market in downtown Baltimore, but probably 5 times bigger.

We shopped around found some shirts and knickknacks and had a grand time just soaking up our final day here in Melbourne.

We purchased a boomerang and a small didgeridoo and we were told they had to be checked at the airport…………..REALLY! I want to see the bushman that can use that ancient weapon in the confines of a narrow airplane cabin. There local “hero” Crocodile Dundee surly couldn’t, so what is a weak old yank going to be able to do with it! So we picked out a few things and hustled back to Neal’s to watch Oklahoma University (Sandy grew up in Ok) get a proper “thumping” from Clemson. I have to assume it was a thumping, as when we left for the airport for our flight to Sydney, it was 27-0! We said our goodbyes to our wonderful friends and hosts for the last week and Neal drove us to the airport. It touched me as I was thanking him profusely, he thanked me for bringing a piece of home to him for the holidays. He and Sandy are wonderful people and friends that we cherish deeply, and I can’t wait until they come back to Atlanta in May for good. Good day Melbourne, you will always hold a place in my heart, but it is now on to our final adventure here in Australia………. Beware Sydney the Yanks are Coming!!!!!   

Long Road Up

As planned, we did finish all of our beer and most of the bottle of rum we had brought along for the ride.

Real regular vacation-like night, watched Top Gun, drank, and just hung-out laughing with the “ride team”.  We had planned to make another run up the coast to the spot where we had previously hoped to see wild Kangaroos, but the morning weather report said that rain and high winds were expected in the early afternoon, so we decided to super-slab it back to Melbourne. 

Not expressway like super-slab, but straight, flat, single lane roads north into the Australian bush where we seldom even saw a car. We cruised along often running for 120 Km per hour (about 74 MPH for you metric challenged Yanks) for an hour at a time. Small towns, mostly cattle and sheep farms. Funny once you get a few kilometers in from the coast, the country side looks a lot like some of our Midwest states like Oklahoma or Kansas. Everything is pretty much flat, few trees and covered in brown grass. An interesting observation about construction. I would say that half of the homes that I saw were square, box like structures with flat roofs, kind of Frank Lloyd Wright looking. Not what I would say “farm-like” structures that you see in the states. Another observation, although we passed a couple of hundred miles of “farm land”, there was not a crop to be seen. Sure there was the occasional wheat field, but not any that would sustain human life. I guess that is why everything is so expensive here I suppose, that and the fact that most folks take off at least 1 month straight for vacation a year. In fact when I told a local that I was taking 2 weeks to explore as much as I could of Australia, he looked at me oddly and said I should have taken off at least 1 month, which is what he does when he travels. I tried to explain to him that is just not possible in most jobs stateside, but I think he wrote it off as just an American being impatient! Anyway, we hoofed it back to Melbourne, the ride was pretty but uneventful.

We unloaded our bikes at Neal’s than drove that crazy drive back into town to the rental place and dropped them off. So our motorcycle part of the adventure was over. The bikes ran great, the scenery was spectacular, the company was awesome, and we got to see about 400 miles from the seat of a motorcycle in one of the most beautiful spots in the world.  Now back at Neal’s, washing cloths and chilling one more night with our dear friends Neal & Sandy. We are planning to visit a local market in the morning and hope a plane to Sydney for the final phase of our adventure.

A Diamond Day on the GOR (Great Ocean Road)!

WOW! How is it only #3 on the best roads of the world?????  After driving 177 Kilometers on the GOR yesterday, we drove all the way to Warrnambool another 200+ Kilometers today. We left early trying to beat the “holiday crowd” out of Lorne on the way over to Apollo Bay for a late breakfast. We stopped at a spot that usually holds some wild koala bears to view, but much like the kangaroos, none were seen. We hotfooted over to Apollo cutting our travel time dramatically using something available to motorcyclist here in the state of Victoria called “Lane Filtering”. Basically, there is a law that states you don’t have to wait in any lines of traffic, and you are welcome to go over to the shoulder and keep moving past all of the stopped cars. We easily passed several thousand cars patiently waiting and easily took 1 ½ hours off our travel time. There were a number of “butt puckering” moments when there really wasn’t adequate room to get between the motionless cars and the guard rails, but even though Neal rubbed one with his side bag in one incident, we arrived safely in Apollo Bay for a late breakfast.

 Erin who will basically only eat eggs or pancakes for breakfast, found they had eggs & toast so she was set. Jenn & I trying to find something local to eat settled on Muesli. It is a popular Aussie breakfast dish based on raw rolled oats flavored with fresh fruit, seeds, nuts, yogurt, hoeny and fruit juice mixed with milk. It was awesome and very filling. We then motored our way through the Great Otway National Park and on our way there we saw a couple of cars pulled over and stopped to investigate.  Turns out there were a mother, baby, and daddy wild koala bear up in a tree next to the road, so we stopped and took some pictures before continuing on. 

Our destination, Otway point, is the farthest southern point on the Australian mainland, and home to the famous lighthouse. 

We took some time exploring the point and the lighthouse and then back on the bikes to “The Twelve Apostles”. Turns out due to wave action they are down to like 10.5. 

Anyway an incredible view and yet another spectacular set of views from the point. I know that I have said it before, but although the “touristy” destination points are awesome, the ride to get there are beyond description. It rivals our ride on the Cassier up in British Columbia, and I would be hard pressed to say which one is more beautiful.

 I am so lucky to not only get the chance to see it firsthand, but am so blessed to get to do it with Jenn, Erin, and my dear friend Neal. My words do not do it justice. We did the loop out and back to the point and then hopped on our bikes for our resting place for the evening Warrnmbool. We arrived in the late afternoon and checked into our room. The room literature said they had incredible “delivery food”, and we called them and they said they would deliver, but they were right next door so if we were willing, although they don’t open until later, they would prepare it and have it ready in about ½ hour. I have got to tell you that the Australian folks have been incredible hosts and quick to ask questions once they find out we are from the states. Awesome folks and quick to help when we are not sure to do. So the owner prepared our meals, Jenn & I had Seafood Risotto with scallops, prawns, squid, in a white wine, sage and romano sauce with creamy roasted garlic. Neal had Fillet with a Prawn garnish of creamy garlic and green onion reduction, and Erin had the Australian “Chicken Nuggets”. 

 The food was even better than it sounds and we walked back to the room all fat and happy to settle in and drink what is left of our alcohol beverages so we don’t have to waste the fuel carrying it back to Melbourne tomorrow.  The GOR was even better than I could have imagined. Another diamond day!

Introduction to the Great Ocean Road

We woke up early and the folks at the motorcycle rental place (Garner's) agreed to meet us at 8:00 AM so we could get an early start.

Signed all the paperwork, picked out gear for Erin and Jenn needed a helmet. Neal lent me everything I needed (helmet, jacket, gloves) from his supply, and Jenn used Sandy’s jacket and gloves.

 After everyone was fitted we high tailed it back over to Neal’s place to pack our cloths and then we were off. A little odd navigating through the streets on Melbourne on the wrong (?) side of the road, but Neal said stay to the left and look to the right! We were soon on the outskirts of town on our way to Torquay where we stopped for a late breakfast. Turns out it is the home to Billabong and DC, and real close to the Bell’s beach, one of the most famous surfing beaches in the world.

Neal pointed out that Australia was number 1 in 3 things; Surfing, Skin Cancer, and The number of things that can Kill you!!!. Hopefully we won’t encounter any of the number 3 items J. We then entered the GOR (Great Ocean Road) and were wowed on almost every turn. 

 There were so many shades of blue I am sure that the pictures we took will not do them justice.

 We stopped at a place where there are usually wild kangaroos but all we saw was this sign. 

So we continued on to our resting place for the night in Lorne and upon pulling into the hotel, we noticed it crawling with police officers. Cars everywhere and officers walking around on every floor. We may just be nervous Americans, but it looked like something serious was going down! We pulled in among the sea of blue and got off the bikes. Sheepishly we ask an officer scurrying by if everything was alright and quickly got into his vehicle and drove off. The others soon followed so we assumed that whatever had occurred was now all-clear. Neal went into check in while I stood menacingly looking with my arms crossed next to our gear. The hotel maintenance guy came by and asked did I feel save! I asked why he would ask that, he said with the entire Police Department staying there, everything should be completely safe during our stay J. In fact we had just missed them as they had hurried of to dinner! Ok John…………. stand down from Def Con 4. After letting my chest deflate to its normal non-badass size, we worked our way over to our room. Neal decided he wanted to go to the beach and Erin was inclined to go with him. 

Jenn & I stayed back and chilled. The beach crew soon returned and we headed out to the GOR’s best burger bar The Milk Bar. As advertised it was delicious and packed with locals in the middle of their summer holiday. We quickly consumed our vittles and walked the short path back to “our stronghold” and called it an evening.  These wild Sulfur Crested Cockatoos were everywhere.

Awesome day, awesome ride, awesome company.

Beach Day

We got up and once again had a great breakfast prepared by our hosts and packed to go to St Kilda Beach. As we were approaching the shore, a storm popped up and the temperature dropped dramatically. It just so happened that there is a very small amusement park right next to the beach that we could spend a little time to give the weather a chance to pass over. This park, the Luna Amusement Park was built in 1912 by the same person who designed and built the “Coney Island” amusement park and this was his second design. 

Pretty cool old rides with the first wooden roller coaster built here in Australia. It features a standing bloke who rides at the back of the cars and uses a long wooden handbrake to control the speed of the coaster to keep it from leaving the track! It is either the scariest of most fun job in the world. As it gets to the tops of each hill he is holding the brake with both hands and pulling back as hard as he can with the cars lurching and jumping around! Pretty cool thing to see.

 The park is open to walk around in, so we looked around at all the old signs and paintings. 

While the rain was subsiding and Erin and Blake to a ride on the spider and by then the rain had stopped so we walked across the road to the beach and settled in for the day. It was a little cool and windy, so Erin & I went searching the beach for what we could find. She found some cool pieces of ground down bottle glass that Sandy calls “Sea Glass”

. Erin & I played on the beach for a while and by late afternoon we decided to pack things up and head back. We hooked back up with the rest of the group and went over to a cool little Italian place in the dining district of Carlton, and to Casa Del Gelato for a great top off our meal.

 We once again strolled back to Neal’s through town and had some great conversation along the way. We got back and packed up our stuff, hit the hay early to be ready for the start of our next adventure, our 3 day motorcycle ride on the “Great Ocean Road”. It is ranked #3 of the best roads to ride in the world. Woke up early and heading over now to pick up our rentals to begin the ride. I am a little anxious about this driving on the “left side” thing, but I am sure we will figure it out. Let you know how it goes tomorrow. Another wonderful, full day here Down Under. G’day Mates

Christmas with Friends and Today the Beach

Had a wonderful time yesterday with great friends. Woke up to a great breakfast and then walked about 1 mile over to morning services at Neal & Sandy’s church. 

 Erin needed to stop for a “traditional” Christmas Donut at the closest 7-11, they are even more prevalent here than in the States.

 Most major intersections have, as our “tour guide” said, a place where you can get your public transportation needs taken care of. Turns out that Neal and Sandy attend a church that has a nationwide mission, connected to a number of cities around Australia via video. The one here in Melbourne, is in a 100 year old theater. The service was awesome in that it connected via live feed to the main campus in Sydney. Great music and a wonderful message but what was truly incredible was the stage, lighting and sound system. 

  Erin said that she had never been to a “Rock Concert Church Service Before” . But what really blew me away, was not just with this church's building, but the architecture of all of the “old” buildings here in Melbourne. Love seeing all the old stone work and ornate metal. Not "old" like most of Europe, but there are many earlier 20^th century structures that are extremely well preserved and in daily use. 

An interesting side note, most of the sidewalks are made of large blue stones. When I asked our “tour guide Sandy”, she explained that they were re-purposed ballast stones from the days when most everything that arrived by sailing ship to Australia came in at Melbourne due to the calm waters offshore. All of the streets used to be paved with them, but with modern materials now available, they are now each individually numbered and used for sidewalk pavers. We strolled back through town past the 1990 World’s Fair building, the Melbourne Museum and the Parliament building, through some parks large and small, and made our way back to their apartment in Carlton.

 Sandy again prepared a wonderful lunch and we opened presents.

Sandy purchased Kangaroo coin purses for Jenn and I, and a Koala bear purse for Erin.

Jenn gave each family member one of the paracord bracelets she makes for each of our trips, and then….deh….deh…dah,  it happened. Knowing that we had limited packing space to bring our friends gifts, we had been practicing a duet of “Baby Its Cold Outside” to regale them with our singing talent J, as our present to Neal & family.  We did our best and everyone seemed to enjoy it so I guess the gift was a success. Of course, it could have been the many drinks that most had prior to our performance. Unfortunately Neal videoed it so it will live on in infamy and I am sure it will make it into Jenn’s photos to the left if you are really compelled to see it. We just “chilled” for the rest of the day, watched some movies, talked and told stories and had a thoroughly enjoyable day. So today we are going to the beach and going to explore the seaside part of town with pics to follow in my next posting. G’day Mates.

Merry Christmas from Down Under

We took our time getting up on Christmas Eve because our fight from Cairns to Melbourne wasn’t until 12:00 PM, but as we were still adjusting to the 14 hr time difference, we still arose around 6 AM local! So we just went down to the hotel restaurant and had a huge breakfast, settled up with the front desk and got a taxi over to the airport.

Although an older terminal from the outside, the inside was quite updated and Erin found plenty to keep her occupied for our 2 hour wait for takeoff. The flight was non-eventful and we soon landed in Melbourne and were on our cab ride over to Neal and Sandy’s house. They had mailed us keys as they were flying in the same day from a family outing to Alice Springs. But as we got to the door it was open, Jenn knocked, and as luck would have it they had just arrived minutes before us! Great to see our good friends and were happy to see both their sons and a friend Katie there as well. So hugs and handshake all around, hugs for Neal and Sandy, introductions to Katie from Singapore, and handshakes for the boys as that what young men that age to. We had a scrumptious snack that Sandy, Jay (son), and Katie, made and then headed to downtown Melbourne to partake of some Aussie Christmas spirit.

The city was alive even though we didn’t get down there until after 6 PM.

 It was amazing! Most places I have been on Christmas Eve are ghost towns that time of the evening, but there we street performers, decorated windows like Macy’s in NYC with crowds looking at the displays, and a cool gingerbread house exhibit.

In addition, Sandy who as Neal lovingly calls the “New Face of Melbourne”, gave us a guided tour of some of the local landmarks along the way including the Kangaroo Gargoyle!

We wandered back thru China Town on our way back to Neal’s place and had a wonderful late dinner of Sandy’s “famous lasagna”, had a few laughs and drinks and then called it a night. So it is now 6:30 AM local (2:30 PM on the 24^th, Atl time), and we have awoken for Christmas here in Oz.  The place is coming alive, we are soon leaving for Church service, and I can’t wait to spend another day here with our friends here in Melbourne

WOW............. Just WOW!

Did I already say WOW, if not than WOW! For those that have followed our travel blogs before, you have heard me say “some days are diamonds”. Well this ranks up in that category along with our day on the Cassier in British Columbia and our trip to the bottom of Copper Canyon in Mexico. The weather was perfect, the water was warm, and the sea was that perfect shade of deep blue that you usually only see in a post card. We got up early had a HUGE breakfast at the hotel and boarded the shuttle to our guides for the day, “The Adventure Company”. We were quickly checked in and fitted for fins and masks.

 During the 2 hour ride out to the reef, we were kept amused with comical briefings and banter from the dive team. A great bunch of guys who helped make the trip seem like minutes instead of hours. At our first stop, Jenn & Erin were one of the first in the water and I soon followed. I was a little overwhelmed at first being in the presence of my ex-swimmer wife and my current swimmer daughter, but I quickly figured it out and was moving around in the water but not seeing much. Then one of the dive team came by and asked if I wanted to take a guided tour holding on to a life ring he was pulling. 

I quickly accepted and I talked Erin into joining us. He pulled us along and pointed out the best stuff around the first reef we visited with Jenn kicking along under her own power. We saw Nemo and a few of his friends, some Parrot Fish, a large clam (about 1 foot across), and many other fish that I don’t know.

 He then drug me back to the boat and Erin & I went aboard while Jenn continued to explore. We spent about 2 hours there and then pulled up anchor and headed over to Hastings Reef. This was the best part. Over at the previous reef, the average depth was about 15 meters and occasionally it would bump up to about 3 meters so you could see some fish. At Hastings, the average depth was about 2 meters and sometimes even shallower. So you could snorkel along for hundreds of feet with the reef almost within reach and it was covered with fish large and small. Groupers, many Parrot Fish, Diagonal Striped Sweet Lips, Sea Cucumbers, Sea Urchins, and many other fish I have no clue what they were. 

In addition there was many kinds of colorful coral other “Soft Coral” covering almost all the colors of the rainbow. I also became much more adept at snorkeling and could cover ground (or water in this case) much quicker, which opened up the deep the deep blue hole that we had seen from the copter that dropped off to hundreds of feet from our view from the reef. Absolutely spectacular! We then took a helicopter tour of the reef and what a site to see it from about 800 feet above the surface. 

We got back about 45 minutes before the boat was to leave, so we quickly put our gear back on and swam our way over to a deep drop off in the middle of the reef that we had spotted from the air. Another spectacular drop off in the middle of the reef where we saw some fish schools, a large grouper, and a very large clam before the whistle blew to return to the boat. The day could not have gone any better. Everything I expected and so much more. Check out the Pictures to the left to see more pictures and some videos that Jenn took today. A perfect Diamond Day and a big Two Thumbs up from the Martins

G’Day from OZ

Well after a loooooooooooong day of planes, trains,  and automobiles, we finally arrived in the tropical town of Cairns (pronounced cans by the locals). After 32 hours, 3 planes, and numerous waits in security, including a 2 hour one in customs in Sydney, we are finally here! 

 All the logistics worked as planned, including the latest one about the hotel changing hands (see previous post). A lesson learned here is when planning multiple moving parts including terminal changes, leave PLENTY of times between flights! I have become spoiled with our airport in Atlanta. There were times we had to physically leave our terminal, get on a shuttle, and do the whole security check again just to go to another terminal. So although I thought our lay overs were way too long, often it was just what was required to not be running through the terminal Ala O.J, Simpson, for those old enough to remember!

 Anyway we finally got to Cairns, gateway to the Great Barrier Reef about 4 PM local on Monday (1 AM Atlanta Time). We settled in and took showers (man were they needed!), and in order to acclimate us to the time, we went walking around town to scope things out and go see as much as we could before find a bed for a long nights sleep. Wild parrots flying around and beautiful plants blooming everywhere it was gorgeous. We stopped into what seemed like a popular local spot called Outback Jack’s to get something to eat, mango wings for me, but Jenn and Erin decided to be adventuresome. Jenn ordered a Crocodile burger and Erin ordered Bootllace Spaghetti, yep regular old spaghetti except with a “New” name. They embody the name Adventure Women!

So on the way back to our hotel, we heard what sounded like a lot of birds in a nearby tree and went on to investigate. They were making quite the racket and were drawing a crowd, but as we got closer we saw that the trees were swarming with extremely large bats, hundreds of them, and they were huge, like the size of a big crow!

We marveled at them for a while and then strolled back to our hotel for an early bedtime in order to be ready for tomorrow’s adventure, our snorkeling trip on the Great Barrier Reef. Our real adventure begins!!!!

Planning done CHECK...........No wait... what do you mean we don't have a reservation?

Well, as I said before "planning is never really done until the trip is over"! Yesterday, I started to add addresses to our Itinerary spreadsheet so that I would have all the addresses to tell our cab drivers where to take us (told you we are planners), but when I tried to look at the reservation that we made back in June for the Holiday Inn for our first night in Australia (Cairns), my reservation  on their website had been deleted! I promptly called the 1-800 number listed on my email confirmation and I was told that that property was no longer in the Holiday Inn portfolio, as it had been removed on October 1st.  The help desk told me there was nothing they could do although we are now days away from being in Cairns. I asked to speak to a supervisor who put me through to their Customer Care department. After a couple of conversations with other folks there, I was told that that property had been transferred to Hilton ownership under the name of their DoubleTree brand. So now what do I do I ask them. I was told that I would now need to call them (Hilton Reservations). "I am not doing that" says I. "I bought the room from you and this is your issue to resolve", another couple of people later, I finally found a lady who volunteered to call the hotel in Cairns and confirm  my reservation while I was on the phone. The DoubleTree front desk confirmed my reservation and gave me a new confirmation number. I say "thank you" and then ask "could someone email me a NEW confirmation so that I have a copy to present  the front desk when I arrive"................................. wait for it.............................wait for it...................  "sorry" they both say, neither group can do that! The reservation is no longer in the Holiday Inn system and Hilton doesn't have because it wasn't generated in their reservation system. DAMN IT FOLKS!!!! Anyway I WAS ASSURED, we had a reservation and the NEW confirmation number is all I will have when I show up at their front desk after flying for 32 hours. I probably won't be the bubbly warm person that you all know and love when I get there, so I hope that this will be a non-event, or there might be an international incident on the local news, just sayin'  :)

Let the OMG moments begin

Well as is usually the case, the "Oh My Gosh did we remember to __________"  (fill in the blank) moments in the middle of the night moments have begun! You know, you spend months trying to plan every detail of a trip, and one with as many moving parts out of our control as this one, creates a lot of "did I remember to" moments. Jenn and I started this ritual the week before our first big trip above the Arctic Ocean (see Martins' Up and About), and it has continued to this, our latest adventure.Although, this trip doesn't have all of the logistical things that needed to be addressed in our "pure" motorcycle adventures to remote areas in North America, but if you throw in our daughter Erin, and traveling about as far as you can go on this planet to begin the adventure, there are a lot of potential "points of failure". Hence the last minute anxieties! But, like we have said in the past, we will get our planning as close as we can and then we will do what we Martins always do "Improvise, Adapt, & Overcome" the rest (sorry I use this all the time but I lifted it from a Clint Eastwood movie Heartbreak Ridge). So the current plan is to celebrate our regular family Christmas with me, Jenn, Erin, and Jenn's mom Judy, on Friday night (December 19th). We are planning to go to the Christmas Light Show at Lake Lanier Island after work, have a dinner out somewhere, then go back to the house to open presents and stay up as late as we can. Knowing that when we get on the first plane Saturday, we won't be done until 32 hours later when we finally lay down in Cairns Australia. We will also celebrate the holiday on the official day with our dear friends Neal & Sandy in Melbourne ( we have a special gift arranged for them).  We will have plenty of opportunities to celebrate the holiday, but this is kind of a bitter sweet Christmas for Jenn & me, as Erin has finally come to the realization that Santa isn't a real person. Although we explained to her that the Spirit of Giving is what this holiday is really about, and the real magic of the season is real, if she keeps that spirit in her heart. She may not understand it yet, but we hope one day she will. So I will try to post at least one more time before we start, but if not Merry Christmas to all.

One Scare, but our Planning is Finally Complete................ I Think

We had thought we were done with our planning, but life has a way of throwing you a curve ball when you least expect it! Here is the back story. We had booked each flight of our journey independently and saved almost $1000 by waiting for each leg to go on sale, and buying them lower than the quoted price, if we had bought them all at the same time. The plan was working until Virgin Australia (partner of Delta) moved the flight from LAX to Sydney making it arrive 2 hours later, therefore making us miss our connecting flight to our final destination of the day Cairns (Great Barrier Reef). Well Delta with whom I booked the flight told me that I needed to work that out with Virgin Australia, and VA told me that I needed to work that out with Delta. In addition we bought the Virgin Australia trip from Sydney to Cairns from Orbits, who told me that they would move us to the next flight for a combined additional cost of $1004, when I only paid $750 for the original tickets and so began a 4 hour phone call to make sure that we would not be left for a night in Sydney!  So although both tickets were for the same airline Virgin Australia said even though the created the problem, if I wanted to get it fixed, I would have to pay the additional $1004 to Orbits. After seeing the result of my daughter using social media to help resolve an issue with Sears, I posted a blasting message on Virgin Australia’s main Facebook page while waiting on the phone, and within about 20 minutes my agent quickly came back on the line to say they (Orbits) were going to wave all additional charges except a $90 Admin Fee, but they would give me $90 voucher to use on any future bookings. We will have to spend 4 more hours in the Sydney airport, but we will at least get to our our final destination for the day So it looks like merchants are really paying attention to their image on “Social Media Land”. Thanks Rach!   This is how our trip looks at a high level, once we arrive in Sydney, Australia. Less than 2 weeks out now! G'day Mates

Plan Motorcycle Ride in Australia ….……….. Check!

Well as most of you know, Jenn & I are consummate planners, therefore “gaps” and unknowns are just not acceptable! So there was some final loose ends that needed to be wrapped up before we left, that involved our 3 days of motorcycle riding on the continent. Our dear friend Neal (remember him as the person who got us across the border in the Martins’ Down & Out), had suggested that we call a motorcycle dealer in Melbourne where his brother-in-law had rented a bike from in the past to arrange our steeds. Well after many calls and emails with no response, we again called Neal and asked for help.  Always one to assist, Neal went down the establishment and reserved us a couple of bikes; a Suzuki DR650 for me

 and a Yamaha Tenere for my bride. 

On a  side note, we had to move our scheduled to start one day later in order to accommodate , “Boxing Day”, a national holiday on the 26^th  . “Boxing Day” as I understand it, is a holiday in many countries  that are in the Commonwealth of Nations. It was traditionally a day for employers in England to give bonuses, leftover clothing or food to their employees, or for Lords to give agricultural tools and seeds to their tenants. They presented these gifts in "boxes" the day after Christmas, hence the 26th . I guess this is one of the things we Americans “threw away” when we asked the Brits to leave our new country a couple of hundred years ago :) Wow, who knew! ……………Anyway back to the bikes……………… We could have rented some pure street bikes, but we both wanted to check out some of the competitors for the current “Adventure” bikes that we have taken to all over North America, the Kawasaki KLR 650.  The wonderful friend that Neal is, he also developed the following itinerary for our 3 days on the bikes to help us see as much of Oz and we can in the time we have allotted. In fact, we will be our personal guide for the trip, "the man" himself, Neal. How cool is that!

Saturday 12/27
Start Point	Stop Point	Miles	Activity
Carlton	Anglesea	71	Pick up bike early.  Ride to Anglesea.  Look at the wild kangaroos at the Golf Course.  They are normally there
Anglesea	Lorne	19	Lunch in Lorne. Lovely coastal city. Nice shops and sidewalk cafes. Scope out a good hotel for the return trip if we don't have one yet. We will then go to the Lookout.  Awesome views from 300m above the ocean
Lorne	Apollo Bay	28	Small coastal town. Very nice beach. Two pubs and two restaurants.  Stay at the Lighthouse Keepers Inn.
Sunday 12/28
Apollo Bay	12 Apostles	53	This is the capstone thing to see on the Great Ocean Road.  We will spend several hours within a couple miles from here.  Many cool things to see and do.
12 Apostles	Port Campbell	7	Lunch
Port Campbell	Point Otway	45	Checkout the Point Otway Lighthouse
Point Otway	Lorne	47	Dinner in Town
Monday 12/29
Lorne	Torquay	29	Torquay is the surf capital of Victoria.  Get there early to have breakfast.  Walk over to the beach to take in the sights.  Erin can take a surf lesson if desired.
Torquay	Carlton	65	Ride back to Melbourne and dinner at Neal & Sandy’s favorite pub in Fitzroy.

Our motorcycle part of the journey looks something like this, all in South East Australia.

So it looks like our planning is finally complete (?), but as we discovered in Mexico “Life is what happens while you are busy making plans”, although I don’t expect anything close to that occurring in the “Land Down Under”! G’day Mates

Well It's Real Now!

All the tickets are bought so Erin, Jenn & I are going to Australia over the Christmas break to experience the "Land Down Under". This wasn't our original plan for the year, but the "stars aligned", and here we are in the final stages of planning! You see our dear friend Neal (remember him from our Mexican Adventure "Martins' Down and Out"), took an assignment in Melbourne Australia for a couple of years, and we decided it was now or never. He graciously opened his home to us as a "base", and the planning began. We have a more detailed plan (trust me!), but here are the basics.

• Fly out of Atlanta on December 20th and after a couple of connecting flights, we land in Caines, Australia, gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.
• We take a day to recover from the 25+ hour  flight, we spend a day snorkeling the reef, with a helicopter ride to look at the reef from above thrown in.
• December 24th, we fly to Melbourne and spend Christmas with Neal, Sandy & Family
• December 26th, we pick up a couple of motorcycles in Melbourne and spend 3 days exploring the Great Ocean Road, rated #3 of  the best roads in the world!
• December 29, we plan to explore Melbourne and get some beach time in, as it will be summer-time in Oz.
• December 30 we fly out to Sydney  to prepare to ring in the new year at the first place that celebrates the occasion, Sydney Harbor.
• December 31, party at the Harbor!
• January 1, recover and rest up for the next day's adventure
• January 2, a daybreak hike to the top of the bridge over Sydney Harbor, a walk that starts at 3:30 AM and gets to 400 feet above the water!
• January 3, explore Sydney
• January 4th, fly back to the states. Funny due to time changes, the time we will arrive in LA is before we leave Sydney :)

So some final details still being worked out, but this is our plan. Another event packed adventure that I am sure will be another one that will provide a lifetime of stories :)

More to come, but for now ..................... G'day Mates!   Starting to get my Aussie on!