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| Here we are enjoying a lunch cruise on the Sydney Harbour. The photographer had to scramble to get the Opera House in the background. | Holding a koala at Rainforestation in Kurana, Queensland. | Julie's turn holding the koala. |
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Australia 2002! |
THE DREAM
Ever since I was a small boy, I had dreamed of going to the Land Down Under. If I closed my eyes I could almost taste the dry tang of the outback or hear the lazy chirp of birds at a billabong or feel the shimmering sides of the Sydney Opera House. For as long as I can remember, the most coveted of all desires in my heart was to see Uluru (the world's largest monolith, located deep in the red centre of Australia) and climb to its summit.
With a little help from my Aussie mate Andrew Smith, all of these dreams (and much, much more!) came true during the summer of 2002. After more than two years of diligent saving and careful planning, on the afternoon of 5 July 2002, Julie and I departed Ohio and embarked on the trip of a lifetime: a month long whirlwind tour of Australia!
FUN FACTS
Here are some fun numbers from our trip:
THE PICTURES
Once all the film was developed, we had 2045 pictures. A friend calculated that if we slept eight hours per day, then we took an average of one photograph every twelve waking minutes! Needless to say, it will take me months (perhaps years?) to sort through them all and post some on the web. Until then, here are three professionally taken photos from our trip (click on the thumbnail to see the larger version of the picture):
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| Here we are enjoying a lunch cruise on the Sydney Harbour. The photographer had to scramble to get the Opera House in the background. | Holding a koala at Rainforestation in Kurana, Queensland. | Julie's turn holding the koala. |
During our second week, we enjoyed a wonderful two day trip along the Great Ocean Road in the state of Victoria. Halfway through, we overnighted at the Cumberland Lorne Resort in Lorne, Victoria. The suite we stayed in was gigantic (easily as big as any two or three of the other rooms we stayed in during our holiday), and even had in-room laundry facilities ... which came in very handy when I got my shoes soaked by an Indian Ocean wave while taking photos of the resort from the beach. Click on the thumbnail photos to see larger versions.
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| Lorne, Victoria viewed from the west beach. | At the resort, standing before Louttit Bay. |
One of the highlights of our amazing vacation was the two days we spent with Andrew at Ayers Rock, Northern Territory ... the location of Uluru! Here are three select photos taken during our various visits to the monolith (click on the thumbnail to see the larger version):
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| Andrew and Julie at Uluru's sunset viewing area | Morning tea at the sunrise viewing area for Uluru | Me and Andrew at the summit of Uluru; at the young age of 28 I had achieved my life's fondest wish |
RETURN TRIP
The trip back to the United States was like the day that would never end. Due to the quirks of crossing the international date line and flying through fourteen time zones, Saturday August 3rd was nearly 40 hours long for us. Our trans-Pacific flight left Sydney at 2:35pm on 8/3 and landed in Los Angeles at 11am on 8/3. All told, between our three flights (Brisbane to Sydney to Los Angeles to Detroit) we spent over 32 hours either in airports or airplanes.
THE PLAGUE
Our second to last day in Australia, I picked up the Brisbane Bronchitis from one of my Aussie mates that we stayed with in Brisbane. My primary care physician was concerned enough about the strange foreign germs that I was bringing into the country that he prescribed a high-powered anti-biotic, an inhaler, and codeine cough syrup! The Brisbane Bronchitis had me feeling so bad I might have wished that I had saved up a sick day, but spending them all as personal days in Australia was well worth it!
OUR ITINERARY
Here is a mini-version of our travel itinerary (our full itinerary is a 463k Excel document):
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