Hey Boomers!  Yes, you can plan your own Adventure in Australia

In A Sunburned Country:
My favorite book about Australia

Picture this.  We just beginning our long flight to Australia.  My husband and I are sitting on the plane Jim dozing, me reading.  Laughter begins to boil up inside me and I struggle to suppress my chuckles until they burst forth startling my husband awake. 

What caused this hilarious eruption?  In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson.  This is absolutely the best book I have ever read about Australia.  It's extremely witty while relating incredible first person experiences and the amazing facts and observations about the history and contemporary culture of Australia.

So we spent the next several hours that way, with me nudging Jim to listen every few minutes, and reading whatever I found incredibly interesting or just plain funny out loud to him.  And for once he didn't mind.  It's that kind of book.  This is the kind of book you want to recommend to friends and keep in your library forever!

Yes you can plan your own trip to Australia!  Contrary to popular boomer opinion, you don’t necessarily need to take a cruise or organized bus tour in the land down under if you are over 49.

Jim and I planned our amazing trip completely on the internet and phone.  How easy is that!  Now I have to be honest, not every hotel was perfect and we made a couple rookie mistakes, but over all, this was the trip of a lifetime and we made it into an unforgettably wonderful experience. 

Our trek started in sunny Sydney during Australia’s winter (July), then via airplane we hopped to Brisbane where we visited a wildlife sanctuary, a couple days later, we boarded the train for a 32 hour overnight train ride to Yorkey’s Knob (just north of Cairns) where we enjoyed a few warm tropical days at the beach, swam the Great Barrier Reef and experienced a Rainforest. 

We then hopped another plane to Uluru (Ayers Rock) in the arid outback, to ride Camels and hike around mythical Uluru. A  few days later we flew to Melbourne where we picked up a rental car to drive the southern coast of Australia via the Great Ocean Road.  It was freezing!  Eventually we turned north to drive through the center of Victoria past sheep farms and tiny bush towns (think Crocodile Dundee!) to the Blue Mountains to stay at a circa 1904 hunting lodge while we explored the national park. 

Finally, full of incredible adventures, we dropped off our car back in Sydney where we had started our grand adventure and enjoyed even more of that great city before our flight home

Follow along during this series while I take you through our three week self-planned but continually spontaneous and incredibly wonderful trip through Australia.  I hope these tales inspire you to plan your own adventure down under! 

Australian Trek: 
Long Flight to Get There but Oh That First VB!

I have to admit, when Jim and his brother decided that we should travel to Australia, I wasn’t overly excited.  It had never been high on my list of places to visit.  It didn’t have castles or grand museums or tall cathedrals or ancient temples so to my mind, it didn’t sound very interesting at all.  Thank goodness I was really, really, REALLY wrong!  Australia turned out to be one of the most interesting and exciting places I have ever visited. 

READ MORE AND SEE THE PICS!  ........

Brisbane Australia: Best Memory
Holding a Koala at Lone Pine Sanctuary

There are a number of airlines in Australia from which to choose when hopping from Location to location.  The main airlines are the long-established Qantas and budget airlines JetStar, Tiger Airways and Virgin Blue. Qantas has the most extensive flight network followed by Virgin Blue and Jetstar.  Research the airline that works best for your budget and flight needs.

We opted to stick with Quantas Airlines when booking our flights within Australia and our first flight was to the beautiful city of Brisbane.

READ MORE AND SEE THE PICS

Staying at Yorkey's Knob? 
Be Sure to Visit Kuranda Rainforest & The Great Barrier Reef!

32 hours on a train? 
I wasn’t too sure about that idea at first, but we had a blast spending most of our time Kangaroo spotting!  All the way to Yorkey's Knob just north of Cairns.  

READ MORE AND SEE THE PICS!

Camel Rides & Sacred Caves
The Magic of ULURU

Rested up with time in the sun and sand of Yorkey’s Knob, we headed out via Quantas Airlines to the red center of Australia, Ayers Rock, or ULURU as it is called by its aboriginal name.

 READ MORE & SEE THE PICS! .....

Melbourne: 
Too Little Time in a Beautiful City

Melbourne is one of those wonderful cities you really need to spend several days exploring.  Unfortunately, we only had one afternoon and evening since we were picking up our car early the next morning to drive the Great Ocean Road.  Don’t you make this mistake!  Stay at least a few days!

READ MORE & SEE THE PICS!.......

Apostles, Whales & Shipwrecks:
The Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road is truly one of the most beautiful drives in the world and we spent the day leisurely driving along it stopping whenever the beauty called to us even though it was chilly and we had to fight the brisk wind to walk out to toward the sea.

Fortunately this cold harsh wind swept the sky to crystalline clearness so you could see every crevice of the rocky cliffs.  To our disbelief but utter happiness, before our eyes, out on the horizon, the graceful Southern Right Whales emerged from the sea arching high into the air on their migration trek.  It was one of those moments when we looked at each other and couldn’t believe our luck at being right there staring out to sea just as they passed.

READ MORE & SEE THE PICS!.....

Goldmines & Sheep & Kangaroos:
Driving the Heart of Victoria

Leaving the coast of Southern Australia behind, we hung a right at Warnambool and headed into the “bush country” taking a road which was paved in only one direction!  The way it worked was that each car drove on the blacktop and when you met; one car would pull onto the gravel lane of the road.  Which one is pretty much a negotiation I guess! The bush actually turned out to be small towns and wide flat grazing land filled with sheep and kangaroos.  In fact, finding kangaroos hopping through the neighborhoods and gathered in mobs across the landscape as we drove by, absolutely delighted me.  One actually crossed at what can only be called a leisure pace in front of our car as we drove through a subdivision and stopped to give us a measured look-over.  What fun!    READ MORE & SEE THE PICS!.....

Blue Mountains &
A Turn of the Century Health Retreat

The Blue Mountains of Australia…… the dividing range between the coast and the interior.  For twenty years during the penal colony days, no convict made an escape over them.  As a matter of fact, the convicts thought “China and the Indies” were on the other side.  This massive escarpment is actually the beginning of a 1,000 mile inland plateau which has been carved with fissures, steep valleys and cliffs by eons of erosion.  They earned the name “Blue Mountains” because of the blue haze that hangs above them.  The blue haze on the mountains reminded me very much of the Blue Ridge Parkway area of North Carolina near where I live in the U.S.A. and were just as hauntingly beautiful. 

READ MORE & SEE THE PICS!......

Back in Sydney! 
Darling Harbor & A Riverboat Cruise

Finally Back in Sydney for the last few days of our Australian Trek.  We decided to check out Darling Harbor which is named after Lieutenant-General Ralph Darling, who was Governor of New South Wales from 1825 to 1831. It was originally part of the commercial port of Sydney, but is now a major tourist district and is home to a busy waterfront promenade, the Sydney Aquarium, The Australian Maritime Museum, Sydney’s Casino, Australia’s Northern Territory and Outback Center and a host of other entertainment facilities along with lots of fun shops and restaurants along the Warf area.

READ MORE & SEE THE PICS!.....

Our Last Days in Australia:
A Bridge,
A Botanical Garden, A House Museum
& Just Walking

I’m closing out my series on our Australian Trek really missing Australia.  This country that takes up an entire continent was amazing and I long to go back.

On these last days, we watched from the harbor while Bob and Bonnie climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  There was no way I was putting on overalls hooking myself to steel girders and climbing to the top of that bridge!   I’ll leave that to braver souls than myself!  READ MORE & SEE THE PICS!......