It all started Thursday afternoon with a flight from Phoenix to LA to catch Air New Zealand’s Flight 15. Then 14 hours later (that’s 3 movies, 2 meals, a nice nap and two days thanks to time zones and the international dateline) I arrived in Sydney at 6:30 Saturday morning to find Cameron waiting for me in the arrival hall.

We headed to his (after viewing the picture on the following links use the "back" button on your browser to return to the story) apartment adjacent to a golf course in Mona Vale, a suburb north of Sydney Harbor. After breakfast and to dropping off baggage we made a two-hour drive north of Sydney to Newcastle. In Newcastle we had lunch with the Rametta family and dinner with Brian and Marie Fox where we spent the night. In between lunch and dinner we filled an important tourist activity square and visited a petting zoo where I got to meet koalas and kangaroos up close and personal. At dinner Saturday night Cam received a phone call from his brother, Chris, in Guam saying he would be in Australia in a week and a half and wanting to know if we could meet him in Gladstone north of Brisbane. We said sure! Sunday after church we drove back to Mona Vale.

Monday night was a mandatory formation for Cameron as Australian Geographic had their annual awards banquet at the new Australian Geographic (AG) store in the Sydney central business district. The AG stores look a lot like Discovery Channel stores here in the States with a section for unique Australian items (aboriginal and western). Cam’s job was to create the web page for on-line coverage of the banquet. After collecting digital pictures of award recipients and their expedition equipment we headed back to Cam’s apartment where I went to bed and he worked into the wee hours of the morning getting high resolution, press release quality pictures and captions ready for business Tuesday morning. The work continued later Tuesday and Wednesday as Cameron took text from the editorial staff and worked it into the web page graphics.

Wednesday we went to Cam’s local travel agent and made arrangements to fly to Gladstone the following week to meet Christopher. That night Cam had a volunteer fire brigade meeting where a couple of neighboring brigades and Cam’s group took turns practicing extinguishing car fires. The fire service Cam works with has a large national forest, several suburban areas, and public roads for which they provide service. They have to be prepared for all the possible kinds of fires they could encounter.

Thursday we took the ferry into Sydney to see the sights that included the opera house, the bridge, the AMC tower, and another visit to the Australian Geographic store. That evening we went to a concert in one of the opera house halls and had great seats just behind the percussion section of the orchestra looking out into the majority of the audience. As we listened we were able to see the conductor as the orchestra saw him.

Early Friday morning we drove to the airport and caught a plane for a 3 hour flight to the interior of Australia to visit the outback and see the massive rock formations of Uluru (all long "u"s and rhymes with kangaroo) and Kata Tjuta (short "a"s, silent "T", long "u"). The western names for these formations are Ayers Rock and The Olgas respectively. The two formations are about 30 miles apart and there’s a great resort area in between them. That afternoon we took a bus, hiked in the Kata Tjuta formation and ate a barbeque dinner as we watched the sun set illuminate the red hues in the rock. On the way back to the resort we stopped in the desert to look at the southern hemisphere stars which were absolutely brilliant out away from the ambient light and particulate pollution of civilization. The Milky Way was a stand out and it was easy to identify the Southern Cross formation along with several other constellations. The next morning we got up before sunrise and headed to Uluru to watch the sun illuminate that formation. Both Uluru and Kata Tjuta are single rocks (monoliths) and only about 10 – 15% of each rock is above ground. Both are 1500 to 2000 feet higher than the desert floor and the distance around them is 6 to 10 miles. Also, both rocks have cultural and religious significance in the aboriginal society. After watching the color show at Uluru we climbed to the top via a steep trail (3 hour undertaking) and then we hiked the six mile track around the rock (another 3 hours).

After the three hour flight back to Sydney on Sunday we just had time to do laundry and get ready for our 8 hour drive Monday morning through the Blue Mountains northwest of Sydney to Coonabarabran (pronounced Coona – bara – bran). Cam met up with Lawrence Doyle, an astronomer he worked with at Principia College looking for planets around binary stars in other galaxies. Lawrence expects to find about 3,000 planets and among those hopes to find some that could support life (gravitationally and climatologically similar to earth). See the July or August Scientific American for an article with details. At any rate Lawrence was making use of an observatory near Coonabarabran in the Warrumbungle (enough help, you’re on your own for this one) National Park and he invited Cam to join him. Monday night was a bust due to weather. Tuesday Cam and I went hiking in the park and enjoyed the geological formations. Tuesday night the two observers had good sky conditions and got plenty of digital imagery. Wednesday I drove back to Sydney while Cam napped in the car.

Thursday we set our to find the submarine in Gladstone. Chris had indicated the original ETA was Friday but they could possibly get there a day early. On arrival we learned there were no navy piers and that the sub would be moored at a private facility that would be restricted public access. We drove out to the aluminum smelter plant and learned that the sub was not yet here, it would in fact arrive Friday at 9:00 am, what pier it would dock at and that we were not on the access roster for the pier. We then headed into town to find a hotel. Friday morning we headed for the dock armed with nothing more that the desire to get there. We talked our way through two security points and found ourselves driving right on to the pier as the tug was pushing the sub in to moor. We collected Chris and went to town for something to eat and to walk around town. We found an outdoor outfitter and kayaking shop where we made arrangements to explore a river the following morning at a reasonable hour that allowed for a sleep in and time to eat.

Saturday morning was rainy and I’m sure the guide was surprised to see us show up but he was ready and off we went. After a short drive to the headwaters of a small river we put our kayaks in and worked our way six miles down stream with only one short portage. Then we took a soup, tea, and biscuit break using a small stove to heat the necessary water for the tea and soup to warm us up. After that it was back in the kayaks for the six mile upstream run (very little current) to the van and trailer. Back in town we changed out of our wet clothes and took me to the airport to catch a flight to Sydney where I spent the night at an airport hotel before catching my return flight to Los Angles.. The following morning Cam and Chris hiked a local mountain with several crewmembers from the submarine. That night Cam and the kayak guide put on an Aussie barbeque for the submarine crew at the pier. (Cam will have more on this part of the trip when he updates his web page)

Needless to say I made it back to Phoenix and took an extra day off before going back to work. It was a great trip seeing Australia and getting to spend time with Cam and Chris.