In the morning, a quick visit to the Kershaw Gardens, an Australia native
botanic garden, then the other two Rockhampton tourist attractions of Dreamtime
Aboriginal Center and Capricornia Caves, before driving north to Eungella
National Park, west of Mackay.

Kershaw Botanic Gardens was OK.  Not spectacular, but not sucky
either--just OK.  It was built as a Bicentennial project in 1988, and is a
bit tatty here and there, but the trees and plants don't seem to mind!  
Almost all the plants were labeled, and as it specialized in dry tropical
natives, it was good to see.  I took many more …

Mexican Food

Another kinda long day through sparsely populated country, with just a break or two.
After yesterday's tiring day, we got on the road late--10:00--and drove west. About half an hour out of Mitchell, we spotted a turnoff for "Ooline Park", to find an out-of-the-way set of picnic tables and a bunch of numbered posts along a hillside trail. Nothing else. I was interested in finding the wily ooline tree, a rainforest remnant tree known to be growing in those semi-arid parts. No luck, though I did finally a good picture of a 5m tall prickly pear cactus. They grow …

Eurovision

A long 4WD touring day... about 500 kilometers long, through the little visited Mt Moffat section of Carnarvon National Park in western Queensland. We saw a bit of wildlife, and one of the caves with Aboriginal art, but were disappointed that the largest cave was closed a month ago, and the second largest was a bit damaged. It was a long day, with a bit of interesting things thrown in, but in the end just tiring.

We didn't sleep well. There was thunder and lightning all night, and the rain pounded on the metal roof of the motel off and …

We drove down from the Bunya Mountains and stopped in Roma, a few hours west,

A stroll around the mountains

It's pleasant

Feh

Packing up early, we finished up at Binna Burra with a 'bush brekkie BBQ' and a trip on the flying fox, then headed into Brisbane for the final car preparation work for our Cape York and Kimberley trips. Once finished there, we decided to see what the Gold Coast is all about, and stayed in Surfer's Paradise for the night.

The bush breakfast was OK... Barry did all the cooking, and I saw how billy tea is made. Billy tea is simple: boil the water in the billy, throw in a handful of tea, take the billy off the fire …

Today on the news I saw VP Dick Cheney (on camera!) tell journalists they were 'unpatriotic' for asking how President George Bush reacted to intelligence reports in August 2001 about future terrorist attacks.

It's the 'you can't ask this question if you're a good American' defense.

After four months outside the US, I really don't trust George Bush as President if his administration is pulling this lame shit. So why do so many Americans think he's doing a great job? Are my fellow Americans that deluded that 21st-century McCarthyism is now acceptable to them?

Or do the major American news …

Yawn

Like a big country town

[Note: Queensland is pronounced Queens-LAND, two distinct syllables, the S very distinct from the L.]

We left Lismore about 9 and drove east towards Byron Bay, then headed straight into Brisbane, stopping at Tropical Fruit World for some breakfast. Then we did a bit of shopping around Brisbane, had quite a yummy meal downtown, and headed to bed early.

The drive from Lismore to Byron was kinda congested; it was a busy Saturday morning. We headed straight out to the Byron Bay lighthouse, where just below is the most easterly point of the Australian mainland… and we were quite pleased …

Rafting on the Nymboida River

Our last day on the island, which we spent having a much better time than expected at the Amadée lighthouse snorkeling.
I had booked a tour to the Amadée lighthouse earlier in the week from the tour operator in the hotel... Chris and I had a little argument; he said I paid twice as much as I should have since we had vouchers for A$60 each and I had paid 10200XPF. Hm. Grrrr... maybe those were the 'Japanese prices' that Andre warned us about. Chris then thought some more, and it looks like I only paid US$10 more …

A wonderful day, full of interesting scenery. We got up real early, had a quick breakfast, and were on the road out of town by 6:30 just as the sun was coming up. It was cloudy but not drizzly like the day before, and traffic was light; it took us 30 minutes to get into the maquis (as the scrub is called here).

We kept going past the entrance to the Parc Provincal de la Rivière Bleue, then saw a sign to "Bois du Sud, 2.1km"... so we said it can't be that bad if it's only 2 …

Day of wandering about central Nouméa... with actual decisiveness towards the end! We rent a 4WD!

10:00am

One of the frustrating things I'm finding here in New Caledonia is that there are interesting things to see here on this island, but finding out where they are and how to get to them is very difficult. I've been trying to find more information about the strange plant life and landscapes here--but to no avail. The ranger at the Parc Provincal de la Rivière Bleue didn't have information, the botanic gardens didn't either (we were told to wait until Tuesday), and …

In New Caledonia. A very strange island. Half French, as in France French, with butter from Normandy shipped halfway around the world and Bordeaux wine. Nevermind that Australia and New Zealand are less than a three hour flight away... and the closest big city is Brisbane.

Getting irritated that I can't find any local information about interesting plants. It's not on most tourist's agendas... we're not the right kind of tourist, though. With prices so high here (an hour of Internet access at a cafe is US$10, a rental car is US$70 a day from a cheap place …

Today we took our little Renault Twingo all around the island, seeing what strange attractions are in the west and northeast of New Caledonia. While we found some interesting things, such as strange black cliffs near Hienghène, cute roadside fruit stands, and an old World War II US air base, we found most of the scenery simply pleasant rather than wonderful--and not as weird and fascinating as the landscapes east and south of Nouméa.

Starting early, we gobbled down a quick breakfast and headed north along the western side of the island. The landscape was primarily flat to rolling, with …

OK. A day around town. And with a rental car too!

I just couldn't wake up today. Took three big cups of good French coffee.
Picked up the rental car at the hotel here--they dropped it off. Then after breakfast headed out to the Tjibaou Cultural Center. Caught the 10:30 English language tour. We were the only two on the tour, and our tour guide was excellent. She led us first along the cultural center's extensive native plant section, which is divided into five areas along a single path.
We then wandered around inside looking at the art and …

After a lazy morning, we met Andre for lunch and spent the afternoon snorkeling with the fishes and relaxing.

We woke up at 8. Breakfast downstairs in the hotel was pleasant, it was a buffet and more European than Australian: there were cheeses and meats, along with the standard cereal and fruit fare. The sun was bright, the sky was cloudless, the temperature was in the mid-20's. It looked like a very good day.
Afterwards, we looked at renting a car. Budget wanted 30000XPF (at a 131XPF to US$1 rate, this was US$230.) For a two day rental …

A long day--flying to New Caledonia from Sydney, then getting to the hotel took up most of the day.

Early wakeup--6am. Got dressed, put the stuff in bags in the car (parked in an underground car park at the Stamford Plaza Airport), then a quick breakfast. Looking out the window, we could see the airport covered in fog, but we didn't worry.
Hopped on the 8am shuttle to the international terminal--which took forever as we also stopped by the Ibis and the Holiday Inn. Arrived at the airport at 8:45 and checked in for our 10:25 flight. The …

Nowhere have I seen such oppressive, in-your-face, roadside driver propaganda as I have here in Australia. Not in Scandinavia, not in the rest of Europe, not in Canada, not in the United States--and not even in Singapore, the nanny state par excellence.

You have to wonder about the effectiveness of a public education campaign where a typical driver can receive one 'impression' every two to three minutes. Most drivers would get desensitized, I would think.

So, for all of you that have been questioning 'can it really be that bad?', I took pictures of every roadside warning sign I saw …