Blue Mountains, etc.

Hi all,

It's been a week since I last wrote, wow time is flying by.  You might think we just sit around with nothing to do, but so far, that hasn't been true.  Although we have had time for a few pinochle games and some Bananograms.  I'll try to hit the highlights of our week.

Last Thursday we did play a Nilsen game of modified cricket.  Fun!  Bryn got me out the first try.  I think he called it a golden goose, or something.  Kari says it's a golden duck!  It was so hot, nearly 100. We thought we'd play a little and then cool off in the pool.  Well it started to rain and cooled everything off, so we didn't swim.  We ate dinner at Flying Fajita Sisters.  The chef is from Seattle and Jeff and Faye know him.  It was a great meal.  They have a "Wall of Pain" which has different hot sauces on it.  You can't even take the ones off the top shelf without first checking with the waitress.  Bryn tried one from the middle shelf, "baboon sauce" and it was hot, he was hurting for a while!

Friday after lectures we went to the Taronga Zoo.  It was amazing, our first look at Australian wildlife except for the cockatoos and cat birds and lorakeets we saw at Jeff and Faye's.   We saw Wallabies, Kangaroos, Koalas (They get such little nutrition from Eucalyptus leaves that they sleep 20 hours a day.), Snakes (I didn't look at them!), Kookaburra, Echidna, and so many more.  There was one animal that grows a flap of skin to protect its babies, it doesn't have a permanent pouch.  They also had lots of other animals.  Erik, Andrew and Ryan went to a talk on spiders and saw them feed the koalas.  They had lions, tigers and bears!  Also, giraffe, elephants, snow leopard, seal, fairy penguins, otters and more.  It was very enjoyable.  We took the ferry to get there, kind of like a harbour cruise every time you take a ferry.    Mom and Dad, we didn't take an official harbour cruise but have been on ferries to 4 different stops so feel we've seen a good amount.  We used your Christmas money to buy entrance to the Aquarium, so thanks again!

Saturday morning we left for the Blue Mountains.  We had a scientist along, Howard, who was so knowledgable about Australia's history and the aboriginal culture, animals and plants and so much more.  It was great learning from him.  He told us about the amazing discovery of the Wollemi pine-in 1994.  They thought it had been extinct for 60 million years.  There are 100 or so trees growing in a remote area of the Blue Mountains  and they have done tissue samples and grown more of the pines and you can buy them from the Botanic Gardens here.  Pretty amazing.  We went to Scenic world and went on a short railroad ride straight down a hill where it used to be a coal mine.  It felt straight down, but was 56% grade, the steepest in the world.  We hiked around the forest and Ryan spotted two lyre birds, they mimic other birds and sounds.  They have a gorgeous tail sort of like a peacock.  We took a gondola back up the mountain and went on another hike and saw all sorts of interesting plants and trees.  Then we went to an ecolodge, a very gorgeous  place with wonderful food and accomodations.

Saturday we went to Jenolan caves and had a 3 hour tour.  It was great.  It reminded me of L&C Caverns in MT, except it was bigger and older (the oldest in the world at 450 million years) and had lots of white crystals.  Very interesting.  We had a picnic afterwards by a little river and some of the students and our 4 jumped off a rock cliff into the water.  As we were walking back, Ryan was a ways ahead of us and he saw a platypus, we could see the bubbles where he'd gone under, they are hard to see, so that was cool.   Saturday night we had pavlova for dessert with passion fruit, kiwi and strawberry.  Yum.  We had a campfire, shared a favorite childhood memory and learned some new songs.  Then we went to a clearing away from the trees and looked at the stars.  They were absolutely gorgeous.  We saw the southern cross and the crab nebula and a very bright, long lasting shooting star.  What a night.

Sunday the students took a 5 km hike down to the Grand Canyon.  Ryan and I stayed back with Erik.  He'd been sick with a fever since Friday night.  We went to a hospital there, Katoombah, and he has a UTI.  The meds haven't knocked it down yet and we were at a hospital here yesterday.  He got a second antibiotic and is marginally better.  He was well enough today to go reef fishing about 5 miles from Sydney.  He and our boys and 5 students rented a fishing boat.  They caught 16 keepers and we had a fish feed tonight.  It was yummy.  They caught a pig fish, a breem and quite a few fat heads.  5 of the 9 got sea sick.  Luckily Bryn and Ryan escaped it.  They got to see dolphins, including a baby one, and fairy penguins.  I'm envious of that!

The gang is at a play right now of Edgar Allen Poe, Tales of a tell tale heart.  Ryan and I decided to hang out here instead.  We're exhausted.

Andrew is trying to work it out so he can stay 2 weeks longer.  It's only $100 to change his ticket and he'd love to be here for the week at the Aboriginal camp.  He'll miss the first 2 weeks of classes, but he feels it'd be worth it.  It's been so good to have he and Kari here with us.  They've become good friends with the LC students, who are such a great group!  Kari's not looking forward to the 19 hour flight by herself, can't blame her.  She leaves on Sunday.

Well I am sure I am leaving out so many great things, but I'm falling asleep.  Check out my pictures, I keep them pretty up to date.  www.picasaweb.google.com/carlanilsen

All for now,

Carla