Part 4 - Mid - to - Late June, 2024 – Melbourne, Great Ocean Road, Australia

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Melbourne

Great Ocean Road

Approaching the luggage carousel, we find our driver waiting for us.  She takes one of our heavy bags, placing it in the trunk of the car like it weighs half of its actual weight.  Being spent from our travels to this point, I let her handle my bag too.  She is a wealth of information.  I furiously take notes on the phone for locations, and how to get there.  Temperatures are in the 50’s.  After registering at the hotel, and unpacking we are on a mission to find a pharmacy, for my cough, and a restaurant.  We are famished as we didn’t get any food on this flight.  We find both, the latter being a Greek restaurant.  A salad and platter of appetizers fills us for the evening.  We are in bed by 10, worn out for the day.

Part 3 - Mid-June, 2024 – Daintree Rainforest, Uluru/Ayers Rock, Australia

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Daintree Rainforest

Coral Sea sunrise

Our alarm wakes us at 5 allowing us time to catch a sunrise over the Coral Sea.  The Esplanade is filled with many people, causing us to dodge walkers, joggers, and dog-walkers.  We gaze at the golden sky over a glass-like sea.  It is cool, but no jacket is needed.

Early – Mid June, 2024 – Blue Mountains NP, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

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Katoomba and Blue Mountains National Park

The Blue Mountains showed up on one of my searches of Sydney.  It is roughly 63 miles ENE of Sydney.  Since we are not renting a vehicle this trip, we are using one of Sydney’s trains to transport us there.  We are traveling light, fitting only the necessary items into our backpacks, leaving the heavy stuff behind at our hotel.  We walk three blocks to a subway station that takes us to the central train station.  From there we board a longer distance train, transferring to the train that takes us to the town of Katoomba, our chosen destination to see the Blue Mountains.

Early June, 2024 – Trip Preparation; Sydney, Australia

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Background

Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House

Since December of 2022 we have been considering hiking to basecamp of Mount Everest, not the peak, basecamp.  Basecamp in itself is quite a trek.  But digging into it more and more we decided to put that trip on hold, possibly indefinitely.  About that time Gary Hart, landscape photographer from CA, announced his new photography workshops for 2024.  Among them is ‘2024 New Zealand Winter’, a 10-day workshop on New Zealand’s South Island.  Usually when I see the listing it is already filled, with a waiting list.  Not this time.  Nicida and I talk it over, then decide to send off a check for the deposit.  We are in.