And where I’ve been – Page 5

Kuranda

There is a village up in the rain forest called Kuranda. You can get there by bus, but savvy people know that the best way to go is either the train, or the “Sky Rail.”

Thankfully, I went with my friend Melissa, and she knew all the best things to do. I am so grateful for her!

So, we took the Sky Rail there, and it offered places to get off and walk in the rain forest, as well as amazing views from within the cable cars.

skyrail tram best image — Skyrail End in Kuranda

When we got there, we went to a wildlife park with koala bears and kangaroos, which was cool.

Then, we went to a butterfly garden, which was even better. (I love butterflies!)

gorgeous — Butterfly from the butterfly garden

And, I tried a kangaroo steak, which was way better than a kangaroo burger.

Finally, we took the train back to Cairns.

train through mountains — Train through the mountains

The train ride was amazing, and we even stopped to see the waterfall!

waterfall and mist — Waterfall and clouds

It was a really good day, and I loved the rain forest.

rainforest overview — View of rainforest

I took a tour of the blue mountains through a company called Barefoot Down under. I chose them specifically because the flier claimed that only a “moderate” level of fitness was required (while other tours said the hiking was “hard” or “difficult.”)

As a cancer survivor with a heart condition, I struggle. I mean, I am not unfit. I run three times a week at the gym and I swim nearly every day. I can and have hiked all day. In fact, just last year I did the 888 stairs to the top of Ulsan-Bawi in Seoraksan.

pathway in forest — Stairs that the tour operator thought we should run up. Not walk, mind you. Run like a mountain lion was chasing us.

That said, I can’t go at break-neck speeds. I can’t run up and down trails. I do need to hike slowly. And that is why I chose the tour group that said the difficulty was only moderate.

Unfortunately, the tour group leader decided that running was the only way to hike.

Honestly, it would have been fine if we got to Wenworth Falls recreation area, and then he pointed out the easy trail to me to get to the falls. It was short, and I saw children and old people on it. After all, I had disclosed that I had a heart condition, and if he was planning on running wildly down the trails, then he should have let me do my own thing and given me a time to meet back up with the group.

However, he didn’t.

me in woods — Just sat by myself in the woods. All alone. Waiting for over an hour.

He took me into the jungle and then told me the path he was taking to the falls would be “too hard for me” and to “just sit at the trail fork.” I sat. And sat. And sat. He never came back for me and the group did not return. I ended up deciding to hike back out on my own, and I sure am lucky I did! The tour guide had decided to take everyone out going a different way, and I would have missed them all and got left in the forest by myself.

To add insult to injury, he had his wife e-mail me to say “You have wondered off. Please return to the tour or you will be left behind.” When I got back to the city and had wifi, I checked it and when I saw that i was livid. He told me to stay behind, and then planned to say I wandered off and it was my own fault.

Luckily, I decided to hike out on my own.

Upper pathway, which is nicer than the lower trails.

However, I couldn’t very well yell at him in front of everyone when I re-joined the group (and boy did he look surprised to see me.) After all, one of the other girls on the tour told me that he had pretended to try to come and find me (which I know he didn’t, because I did not move.) Ergo, he played it up for them so that he could make sure it looked like my fault.

I took the high road and tried to act cheerful for the rest of the day. We went to a restaurant with overpriced kangaroo burgers, a street full of graffiti, and an overlook to take pictures. However, the whole time I was thinking about how the guide had tried to leave me in the woods because I confessed to having a heart condition and he wanted to run all day.

The thing that gets me is this: He could have just said “This hike is rated difficult” on the flier. If he had done so, I never would have gone on the tour. I wouldn’t have paid a bunch of money to see Wentworth Falls (which I never got to see.) I would have looked for another tour, or taken a bus up to the park and hiked at my own pace like my friends did when they went to the Blue Mountains.

So basically, the tour flier is misleading. It is not “moderate” in difficulty. It is “hard.” That is something they should change immediately. I have no idea how Wenworth Falls looks, and I spent about an hour in the woods reading my book instead of finding out because the tour guide told me that I was “breathing too hard” as he was literally running up a hill and I tried to follow, and so he told me that I should “wait here until the group returns.” I was pretty disappointed.

On the upside, we did come across Chris Darwin (the great-great grandson of Charles Darwin) completely by chance. So, I got to meet him. At least that was something.

edge of the world — One of the only good pictures I got, from an overlook we drove to.

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.

two lovers point ten

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.

purple antherium

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.