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Australia Travel Blog [australia]
… November 2012, we honeymooned in Australia, visiting Queensland, Victoria, and Tasmaia; we also took brief trips…
… New South Wales and South Australia. We took 8446 photos in all (mostly on Jeff's camera),…
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne [australia/01351249098]
(M)(L)Black Swan at the gardens
On the second day of our trip, we spent the morning at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.
Here are a few of my photos from our visit. (The first three are Ingrid's.)
Big Day Out [australia/01351589211]
(M)(L)Rainbow Bee-Eater
On our first full day in Port Douglas, we went on a day-long birding tour with
Murray Hunt of Daintree Boatman
Nature Tours. We first went on a morning boat tour with one other person, and
then in the late morning and afternoon he drove us to a number of sites that
provided numerous opportunities to photograph birds (and a few other things).
I took about 900 photos. The first six are from Ingrid's camera, the rest are a selection of the better ones from mine.
Australian Coral Reefs [australia/01352716308]
(M)(L)img_6780-crop
During our week in Far North Queensland, we took two snorkeling trips on the
coral reefs. The first (and better) was Quicksilver Cruises' deep reef trip on a
big boat where we snorkeled from a pontoon platform. The second (and not quite
as good) trip was from the beaches of Fitzroy Island, which is much closer to
the mainland.
The good part about the Fitzroy trip is that we stayed overnight on the
island's resort so one or both of us snorkeled both mornings and both
afternoons, as opposed to the hurry-hurry feel of the outer reef (not to
mention that we also saw island plants and animals on a couple of hikes). The
bad parts were that Ingrid had some minor seasickness from our trip on a
smaller boat; coral (as opposed to sandy) beaches are uncomfortable to walk
on; the water seemed to be cloudier and the coral less colorful compared to the
deep reef, though after doing some automatic adjustments on the photos they
look comparable.
We recommend getting "stinger suits" (lycra bodysuits) even if you aren't being
told there are jellyfish in the water and even if you feel they look
unflattering on you. The big benefit is that you basically don't have to worry
about sunburn or sunscreen, as the lycra blocks UV. Just about the only thing
exposed is your face, and hopefully you have it stuck underwater 90% of the
time. I didn't burn my back and shoulders after hours of snorkeling—it was
the 20 minutes in an inland freshwater pool later in the week when I finally
got a sunburn worth complaining about!
Each time, we rented ("hired") an underwater camera (basic P&S cameras with
underwater enclosures), and got a few good pictures from the process.
Please forgive us for not attempting to identify the coral or fish in each
photo.
Tropical Rainforest [australia/01352931761]
(M)(L)Really, really big tree.
The gorgeous tropical rainforest of North Queensland. It was full of amazing
plants and was lush everywhere you looked. These photos are from a couple of
sites—the first set are from the area around Mossman Gorge, where we went on a
Dreamtime Tour with an
Aboriginal guide. He told us both about what traditional life had been like,
but also what life is like for people now and what traditions they have been
able to hold onto. The second set is from Cape Tribulation, a
little further north, where we took a number of different walks in the forest.
Warning: Spider pictures inside.
Port Douglas Wildlife Habitat [australia/01353660922]
(M)(L)Rainbow Lorikeet
Wildlife Habitat at Port
Douglas, a zoo of North Queensland animals, including a great variety of birds,
mammals and reptiles. There was plenty to see and do, and plenty of pictures
to be taken. We'd already seen many of the birds in the wild, but it was neat
to see them up close.
Australia: Granite Gorge, Fitzroy Island and Lake Barrine [australia/01353920019]
… in a small part of Australia. (M)(L)Glimpse of the lake through the rainforest (M)(L)Epiphyte, high up…
Victoria Sites [australia/01353922209]
(M)(L)A billabong!
After returning from Queensland, we explored a variety of sites to the east of
Melbourne. Wilsons
Prom was a beautiful park on the southern coast, and we went on a couple of
nice cruises on the Murray River.
More Sites Around Victoria [australia/01354589572]
… neat Naracoorte Caves in South Australia. We visited 3 different caves and learned a lot about…
Healesville Sanctuary [australia/01354848353]
(M)(L)White-browed Wood Swallow
After Wilsons Promontory, we visited Healesville Sanctuary, one of the Zoos
Victoria sites. At Healesville, all the animals are Australian. The day was
overcast and lightly rainy, but not enough to interfere with our enjoyment of
the animals.
They had displays of wombats and Tasmanian devils, but the animals were not
visible when we went by. They also had a platypus on display, but the lighting
was too dim to be able to get a photograph. Too bad, as we never got a
platypus photo on the whole trip, though we did see them in zoos twice.
Zoos in Victoria [australia/01356653168]
(M)(L)Australian Pelican.
We started out the next part of our trip in Werribee, where friends live, and they took us to the Werribee Open Range Zoo, run by the Melbourne Zoo. There you can ride in a bus around the safari area, seeing plenty of mainly African animals along the way. You can also walk around other areas and explore other animals. They also took us to other sites in Werribee. The next day we wandered around the entire Melbourne Zoo, which is quite an amazing place.
Tasmania Sites #1 [australia/01356788362]
(M)(L)Cradle Mountain Walk
The first half of our Tasmania visit. The first part is all at Cradle Mountain where we explored many trails. This was the only truly cold day of our trip, but we still saw many beautiful places on our hikes, and wombats, echidnas and wallabies in the wild. There's also pictures here from the beautiful Cataract Gorge in Launceston.
Tasmania #2 [australia/01357266183]
(M)(L)The painted cliffs at Maria Island
For the second half of our tour around Tasmania, we went to Freycinet National Park, which was absolutely gorgeous. Had a great hike up to view Wineglass Bay, and then visited other bays and areas of the park. We also stayed not to far away at Windsong B&B. We then spent a day on the tiny Maria Island enjoying being away from people and cars. For the last day, we explored the Royal Tasmania Botanical Garden in Hobart.
Kingfisher Cruise [australia/01359943585]
(M)(L)Azure Kingfisher
We took a lovely cruise on the Murray River, between the border of Victoria and New South Wales, courtesy of Kingfisher Cruises. It was a fun trip exploring a shallow river area with a wide mix of birds.
Halls Gap Zoo [australia/01360203393]
(M)(L)Red panda on the way to food.
Jeff took some really neat pictures in Halls Gap Zoo, not far from Horsham.
Great Ocean Road [australia/01361933080]
(M)(L)The gorgeous Grotto, along the Great Ocean Road.
The Great Ocean Road travels along the coast of Victoria to the west of Melbourne. It's an area of amazing beauty and contrasts, well loved by tourists. We enjoyed the dramatic ocean views as well as the wildlife. Jeff got some amazing photos along the way.
First Half of Tasmania [australia/01363571481]
(M)(L)Water droplets in the Tasmanian temperate rain forest
Here are more shots from Tasmania, this time from Jeff's camera in much more detail! The first set is from Cradle Mountain on our rainy, cool full day there, where Jeff found some cool rain drops and lichen. Then we visited the Tamar Valley Wetlands near Launceston and enjoyed a lovely walk. Finally, there are a few shots of neat insects from Windsong B&B where we stayed on the east coast of Tasmania.
Maria Island [australia/01364176339]
(M)(L)Sandstone carved by the sea and colored with iron.
We spent one of our last days at Maria Island, just off the east coast of Tasmania. It was a beautiful, uninhabited island, with tons of amazing scenery. I've narrowed down our pictures to a few of the best.