And where I’ve been – Page 5

Bondi Beach and Coastal Walk

The first place I stayed was the YHA Hostel in Bondi Beach. It’s a little out-of-the-way (as in, not on the main strip in front of the beach.) However, I actually enjoyed that a lot because we could hear the ocean instead of the people partying late into the night. It’s a run-down sort of hostel where everyone is on beach time (as in, not in a hurry,) but I like that as well.

It was a short walk down to Bondi Beach if you went one way, and a short walk down to Bronte Beach if you went the other. Both are beautiful, but Bondi Beach is certainly the more crowded of the two.

the rocks — One of the many bays along the coastal walk.

The best part was taking the coastal walk along the cliff-sides and seeing all the fabulous views. You can walk through Waverly Cemetery as part of the coastal walk as well, and that is a beautiful place full of old gravestones from early colonial days.

I walked all the way to Clovelly Bay, since I planned to snorkel there. It is a significant distance and there is a lot of up and down-hill, so I recommend a moderate fitness level or a bus pass so you don’t have to get back the same way if it’s too much for you.

Still, you can’t beat the views of the coast in the Sydney area! The sandstone cliffs are striking, and the little beaches inside coves are full of cheerful families and surfers. It’s really a delightful walk.

Clovelly Bay

As you know, I recently visited Australia. I already posted pictures of my snorkel adventures on the Great Barrier Reef, but I also snorkeled in Clovelly Bay, Sydney.

It was freezing cold (to someone who lives on Guam) but I saw my first groupers outside of an aquarium, and that was magical.

I highly recommend that anyone who wants to follow in my footsteps and snorkel any of the Sydney stops from Manly Beach to Clovelly Bay to get a wet suit. I should have, but it was the middle of the summer in Australia and I thought it would be really hot.

Turns out, that is not how Australia works. Water coming up from South America is cold year round. Now I know.

At any rate, it was my first time snorkeling or diving outside a tropical environment since childhood. Instead of coral, there are plants and something that looks an awful lot like moss.

That was quite different. Most of the fish were less colorful, which I expected. However, some were surprising colorful for living in cold water.

I hadn’t snorkeled in a cold environment since my trip to Catalina Bay in Middle School. I remember the huge kelp forests, and how the little orange Garibaldi fish and bright purple star fish really stuck out in the sea of greens. This felt very similar to that.

Great Barrier Reef

I should probably do my Australia posts in the order that they happened. And yet, I am too excited about my underwater pictures from the trip to even start looking through the above-water stuff.

So, it would seem that I am starting with The Great Barrier Reef.

The Reef actually has more bleaching than Guam. If I had to guess, I would say that the shallower water must be the reason (shallow water heats up faster.) Guam is next to the Marianas Trench, so I imagine the overall water temperature in our region might be colder, even though we are on the equator.

You might think it is the types of coral, but it’s definitely not. Nearly all the corals I saw on the Great Barrier Reef were the same as the corals in Guam. There were only a few differences.

Some of the fish I saw on the reef were bigger, which I would guess is because I was snorkeling in deeper water there than what I usually would (since I get better pictures in shallow water.)

There were some huge parrot fish, as well as some large cod and sea bass. I saw a few sharks as well. In Guam I usually see black-tipped reef sharks, but on the reef I saw white-tipped reef sharks. So, that was new.

It was jellyfish season, and I definitely didn’t know that when I booked the trip! We had to wear stinger suits the whole time.

I have actually never seen so many jellyfish in one place. However, the stinger suits protected us, and no one got stung except the guy who took his hood off.

My YouTube Channel has lots of footage of the Reef and all the cool things we saw. I definitely recommend taking a look, if you like the under water world.

The tour guides told me that the best time to see the reef is in August. That is the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere, so I would have thought it would be stormy then.

However, they say the summer is far more stormy, and the good visibility is definitely in August.

So if you go to The Great Barrier Reef, I can recommend Carins Dive Center (who I went through) and their boat The Kangaroo Explorer (which I did the live abroad package on for three days and two nights.) But I can’t recommend going in January, because it was stormy and it was also jellyfish season.

Note: Click the links in this post to see the videos on my YouTube Channel.

Just Photos Around Guam

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This is me at the top of Mt. Lam Lam. There are not a lot of mountains to climb, so I just climb the same one over and over. Island life, huh?

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This is the “desert” side of the island down South. There are a lot of trails to valleys with waterfalls and pools to swim in. I like the tall grass and the red dirt. They contrast well with the blue sky and the fluffy clouds.

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This is me with the first waterfalls that you come to on the Tarzan Falls hike. They are smaller than the main waterfall, but still pretty.

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This is Tumon Bay, where we live. It is the most beautiful view I have ever had, and I know we’ll never have such a beautiful view out of our windows again.

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These are wildflowers out on the trail. Usually you just see types of ground orchids, but these pretty lacy flowers are new to me.

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Rich and I at Hamamoto Fruit World. It is basically just a really big orchard for tropical fruit trees, but I really liked it because I love plants.

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This is the view from Two Lover’s Point. You are looking down at Tumon Bay, and one of the short little buildings in the middle is our condo building.

passion flower

This is my favorite flower. It is called a Passion Flower. They come in different colors. When I was a little girl, my aunt had some that were orange and purple. I loved them. The ones here are mostly white, but they are still pretty.

Signs on the Beaches

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On the beaches in Oahu, I couldn’t help but notice that they had these lovely signs to tell you where you were, what you might see, and what the rules were.

It occurs to me that this would be extremely useful on Guam.

I mean, I have seen tourists stand on coral. I have seen people toss trash off the side of boats. I have been in a heated argument with a woman “looking for sea turtle eggs” because she wanted to eat them. And, I have asked people not to pet or feed the endangered species more times than I can count.

I am getting really tired of tapping people on the shoulder and trying to educate them, because most people are really not open to suggestions from some random white girl.

So I think we need signs.

I want signs in several languages telling people what our endangered species in this area are, and why it is wrong to cook them in soup or BBQ them. I also want signs explaining that coral is alive and not to stand on it, and signs warning people that there will be a fine for littering.

I know it wouldn’t solve the problems. I get that. But it would help. We would need English for the locals, and Japanese and Korean for the tourists. I don’t think it would cost that much. The ones in Oahu didn’t look expensive.

So get on it, Guam. Let’s try to do something about all the abuse of our oceans that I see every day.

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Bagby Hot Springs

A lot of people do the Baby Hot Springs hike because they want to soak in the hot springs. This is a perfectly reasonable thing to do most of the time, but not while I was there!

I was in Oregon was the worst heat wave that they had seen in a long time, and even up around Mount Hood, it was still extremely hot.

Still, we went up to soak our feet in the cold stream near the hot springs, and to relax in the shade where it was cool.

After three years of hiking through jungle, I have to say, it’s really very pretty in Oregon. I forgot the dark shades of green that you find in the forest, and how beautiful the bark is on pine and cedar trees.

As you know, love plants.

And, the plants in the forest near the hot springs are so lush and pretty even in the midst of the heat and the dry weather.

We even saw various kinds of neat fungus along the trail.

I went with my adopted mom and my husband. The three of us are not the kind of hikers who go for distance. We go for experience. And, this is an easy hike and a nice experience.

That reminds me, if you are interested in other easy hikes in Oregon, I would recommend The Creaky Knees Guide, which my mom got me for my birthday.

It has a lot of trails for those of us who are looking for more -shall we say- relaxing hikes?

I should warn that the stream is snow and glacier melt, so it’s not really a good idea to swim in it. We did see some people jump in (seemingly to prove that they could.) However, they got right back out.

Sometimes people don’t realize that you can get hypothermia in Oregon in the dead heat of summer. However, when you are in 35-degree water for too long, I assure you that you can.

The pools in the stream near the hot springs are absolutely deep enough to swim in. There is no reason you can’t swim in them. If you are hot and sweaty, there is no doubt that it would be refreshing.

Just, don’t stay in too long.

Mom soaked her feet because they swell when she hikes. She’s a nurse, so it was really nice of her to go hiking with us in spite of the fact that she spends 14-hour days on her feet all week at the VA.

However, I think we all enjoyed spending some time in nature. There is something about running water, moss, and deep green trees that soothes the soul, if you know what I mean. It just feels good.

There stream is mostly wide with a lot of deep pools, but it funnels through this one part where it is narrow, and I took a video because I love the way water looks crashing over rocks. Enjoy!

Hawaiian Adventure

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Before I moved to Guam, I had only been to Oahu once on my way to Maui. However, every flight to the mainland US from Guam seems to go through Oahu. So, I have gotten to know it over time. At first I went to the tourist spots that I had heard so much about, like Waikiki Beach.

I also got a chance to glimpse the serious feral cat population problem when I went to a scenic overlook. We have a feral dog problem on Guam so I completely understood how that happened.

I also did the food tour. I had pineapple chicken and other Hawaiian BBQ. However this trip, I drove around.

Dole

I already wrote about snorkeling at Electric Beach and The Three Tables. The underwater explorations were a lot of fun! I have never seen so many turtles in one place.

There were also lovely things on land, though.

I tried a Pineapple Shake at the Dole Pineapple Plantation. It had never occurred to me to put pineapple in a shake before, but it was good.

Tip for visiting the Dole Pineapple Plantation:

It was very crowded when I was there, which was a Thursday. I feel like it is always busy. If you want to do the tour, play in the maze, eat at the grill, and really enjoy it; you want to get there early and plan on spending the day there.

It is certainly the place to get all the pineapple you want.

I stayed at The Navy Lodge, which is on Ford Island. I found it amusing to stay on an island off the coast of an island.

Obviously The Navy Lodge isn’t something fancy like the resorts you see on Oahu. But it seems silly to pay for a fancy hotel room when you will only be there to sleep.

Besides, the flowers around the hotel were beautiful.

navy lodge on ford island

Passion flowers are actually my favorite, but they were not in season. None-the-less, there were plenty of flowers around to appreciate. The hotel had a lovely collection of bromeliads.

Of course, we have most of the same flowers on Guam. However, everything looks nicer when you are on vacation, doesn’t it?

weird red plant thing

I know there is a lot of really amazing hiking in Hawaii, and I hope to get the opportunity to do some hiking at some point. However, this trip was short, and we wanted to spend most of it in the water.

If you are interested in hiking, there are lots of really excellent websites that are devoted to hiking in Oahu.

The weather is cooler and less humid than the weather in Guam, so I imagine it is exactly as beautiful and not as sweaty.

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Also, although I wrote about Electric Beach, Pupukea Maine Conservation District, and Turtle Beach; there are many other wonderful places to snorkel on Oahu.

There are some lovely websites devoted to places to snorkel, in case you are planning a trip there yourself and want to take a look.

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The very best thing I finally found was Leonard’s Malasadas Truck. I had heard wonderful things about it from my Portuguese side of the family.

A malasada is a Portuguese donut which is a kind of sweet bread that is fried and rolled in sugar (or other things.) It is a tradition to eat them in Portugal of Shrove Tuesday, which is like Fat Tuesday in New Orleans.

malasada truck

In my family, we ate malsadas on New Year’s Day because we were already together for Christmas. There were my favorite part of the holidays.

Biting into a malasada was like biting into a little piece of my childhood, and I am really glad I finally came across Leonard’s. If you have never had a malasada, I highly recommend that you try one. They’re fantastic!

malasadas

Overall, it was a really nice trip to Oahu. I saw a lot of things I hadn’t seen before, and ran into things I didn’t even know I wanted to see.

Hopefully we’ll go back soon, because we have a friend living there now. Time to take advantage of someone else’s spare room the way people take advantage of ours.

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Turtle Beach

While Oahu, I also visited a place that the locals call “Turtle Beach.”

There is not a lot of sea grass or algae in the water for the sea turtles of Oahu to eat. However, on Turtle Beach, there are several rocks that are covered in algae.

Turtles

Every day at low tide, the turtles slide themselves out of the water, and come up onto the rocks to eat.

I was always led to believe that turtles are really awkward on land. However, these turtles seem to have no trouble at all scooting around.

You could even see turtles that were not up on the beach playing in the waves.

Turtles in Waves

The lifeguard on the beach sets up a barrier to keep people from getting too close to the turtles, and you can’t go swimming in the water directly in front of where they come ashore.

However, it is magical to watch them from behind the barrier and enjoy seeing sea turtles in a whole new way.

Kalua O Maua “Three Tables”

While in Hawaii on the island of Oahu, we went to a place called The Pupukea Maine Conservation District.

Within that area, there are a few places that you can snorkel.

We initially tried to go to Waimea Bay, because we had heard good things. However, there was no parking.

Instead, we followed the road a little farther, and parked in front of the Kalua O Maua, or “The Three Tables.”

I was really glad that we ended up where we did, because we saw so many green sea turtles!

Turtles are one of my favorite animals, and I adore sea turtles. There is one back home in Guam that I love to go visit.

You do have to be careful. The waves are strong, and it would be easy to get pushed into one of the “three tables” (which are just big pillars of volcanic rock.)

They aren’t sharp, but they are full of baby sea urchins, so you wouldn’t want to touch the rocks.

However, as long as you are careful, there are a lot of really beautiful things to see. There are some flat corals, and lots of fish.

The turtles looked a little worse for wear. Quite a few of them had shell of flipper damage.

However, they were reasonably calm around us. We didn’t get too close (obviously) because of the restrictions in the endangered species act.

Seeing them from a distance and being able to zoom in and get video was pretty magical, though.

The waves were high, but the water seemed calmer than on the other side of the island.

There were certainly more people swimming, and we didn’t see any dramatic rescues of screaming people like at Electric Beach.

Electric Beach, Oahu

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I recently went through Hawaii on my way home to Guam. We were only on Oahu for a few days, but Electric Beach at Kahe Point was one of the best things I saw.

You park across the street from the Power Plant, and then walk past the bathrooms onto the small strip of beach.

There are a lot of signs on the cliff side as you walk down, warning you of the dangerous water conditions.

There are also signs on the little strip of beach, telling you not to go in the water in front of the power plant.

The signs have a point. What you want to do is go to the ramp, and swim straight out from the ramp for about 200 feet. Then, bear to the right just a little.

There are pipes (that are buried) with some coral on top. Follow those out.

You can see the bubbles from where the pipes let out.

The water from the power plant is warm, and it attracts a lot of different sea life.

It’s important to be careful. If you get down in front of the pipes, the rushing water will push you out to sea and you will have to swim back.

The best place to be is right before the opening of the pipes, so that you can watch the animals that come to hang out.

We saw lots of amazing things, including a black trigger fish and several schools of baby fish.

Of course, the best thing we saw was a sting ray, which hung around and played in the water with us.

However, there were all kinds of things to see. The are pillow star fish, sea urchins, trigger fish, and much more.

If you stick your head out of the water facing shore, you can see the power plant. This is what it looks like.

And the best part?

When you get out, they have showers!

If you snorkel often, you know how awesome that is. I hate having to drive home salty.

Again, I should caution you about the dangerous waters.

We saw some people get caught in a rip tide and pulled into a rocky area. They had to be rescued.

Make sure you are a strong swimmer before you try Electric Beach.

Safety First!