Gone Batty

So here are a few more pictures from Australia. Maybe I can come in one day this year and spend some time showing some of the others as I have many more. My final night I got to watch the bats come out at sundown...not hundreds or thousands, but millions!!! they all come out of the trees and fly in a group. It took over half an hour for them to all travel by! It was pretty amazing...So, they are so big they call them flying foxes there. They have about a 3 foot wingspan. Luckily they feed on fruit and flowers and not people!

Here is a famous landmark from Sydney also.

Have a Happpy Thanksgiving! It is so great to be back home with Isabela!

Hi HFS!!

Hi Everyone! Thanks for all your notes!

Maggie, my favorite fish had to the be the Barracuda. I saw a HUGE yellowtail barracuda getting cleaned by cleaner fish at a cleaning station on the reef. It was soooo cool. I was only about 8 feet away watching.

McCall- My favorite thing was to meet all the different people. I love meeting new people when traveling and learning about them. The people on Australia were so helpful.

Isabela- Sorry, never met you before.

Tr Peggy- The barramundi was great. And it was wrapped in bacon yummmmy.

Nina- The Hungry Jacks was exactly like Burger King! Whopper and all!

So, here are a couple of pictures of other interesting things in Australia..

Hi

Thanks for the note Hadddonfield Friends School! I am happy you like the photos. I have lots more, so if there are any special requests just let me know.

Nina, the food is good here overall. Here is a picture of the Barramundi Fish that I ate last night. As you can see, I cleaned up. I will be posting a bunch more photos in the coming couple of days. I am flying from Cairns to Sydney tonight. I had to wait 24 hours before flying so I do not get "The bends". If you fly to soon, the nitrogen comes out of your tissues and causes bubbles in your blood, which can be extremely dangerous. I am fine now as it is after 24 hours.

A few more Dive pictures

Napolean Maori Wrasse about to take my head off! It was actually friendly!


That is me getting up and close with a Lion Fish

Another Day on the Reef

It was an awesome day on the reef today. The water was warm, calm, and clear. I saw lots of great stuff including reef sharks, barracuda, sting rays, and giant clams. I had to wear a stinger suit also. Stingers are dangerous invisible jellyfish that have 30 foot tentacles. If you get stung, you are in the hospital in tons of pain, or worse, some can die from the sting....So, of course I wore the suit :) Hope you enjoy these pictures from today.

More Photos!

Trevally Fish

Paddletail Fish

Angelfish

Parrot Fish

Butterfly Fish

Sea Life on the Great Barrier Reef

Moray Eel

Starfish

Staghorn Coral

Giant Clam (I stuck my hand in and it closed!)

Brain coral

Here is a sampling of some of the day

Diving on the Great Barrier Reef

Well, I made it to Cairns and went diving today on the Great Barrier Reef. The reef itself is almost 2000 miles long...it is huge..but Northern Australia is the best place to go out of and Cairns is the main point of departure for the dive boats. I was out on the Coral Sea all day today. I left about 8 AM and returned at 4 PM. I was able to do 3 different dives today. All the dives were on Thetford Reef, but in different locations. The first two were on what is call the horseshoe (because the way the reef is shaped at that point. The other dive was in the "canyons". It is called this because of the sharp walls and canyons that you dive through.

The reef was beautiful with lots of soft and hard corals. Many of the corals were huge and I saw brain coral, staghorn coral, and all kinds of soft corals that look like fans, ropes, and wigs! There is all kinds of marine life on the reef. I saw lots of reef fish including parrot fish, puffer fish, butterfly fish, and clown fish. There are huge anemone all over the reef.

It was about 88 degrees and sunny. It took about 90 mins to get out to the reef from the marina on a large boat. The water temperature was 28 C. What is that in farenheit? I dove to a depth of about 18 Meters. How much is that in feet? Each of the 3 dives lasted for 45-50 mins under water.

I have included some pictures of me under water and some picture of the things I saw today. I will be posting many more pictures tomorrow. I will be doing 3 dives again tomorrow at a different location about an hour North of here, so I will see all kinds of different stuff. Hope you enjoy the photos!

City Christmas Tree

So here is a metal Christmas Tree they were putting up in Melbourne before I left town.

Burger King???!!??!!

I spent some time walking around Melbourne after my meetings here. It is a very nice city. It has a mix of modern and older architecture. It is very clean and the people are very friendly here. Many of the same restaurants we see in the US are here including McDonalds, Starbucks, and KFC. However, Burger king is called “Hungry Jacks”. They have the same menu with whoppers and other stuff, just a different name of the chain here. Here is a picture of what it looks like. I stayed right downtown and it is a great walking city. They have lots of parks and walking paths along the river here. There is also a nice “boardwalk” along the bay (the boardwalk here is made out of cement). People are very active here with lots of outdoor stuff going on. You see lots of people out exercising all the time. There is also a big art scene here with lots of theaters, museums, and other productions.
I am flying to Cairns today from Melbourne. I have a stop in Brisbane, Australia. I just found out the time changes another hour ahead when I get to Cairns, so I will be 17 hours ahead of you. The weather in Cairns is much warmer as it will be about 90 degrees. It is much closer to the equator than Melbourne or Sydney. I will be spending the next 3 days in Cairns exploring the reef and local wildlife. I will be diving on the Great Barrier Reef all day tomorrow, so I hope to have some good pictures to post for you.

The Longgg Journey!

Hello Haddonfield Friends School! I am currently traveling in Australia and will be updating you with some interesting sites and facts during my journey. I hope to load some interesting photos for you also during this trip. Isabela thought you would enjoy following along similar to last year when I did a blog with the class on my trip to Africa.

It is a long way to get to Australia!! I left Philadelphia on Friday afternoon and arrived in Australia late Sunday morning! I first took a plane to Los Angeles, CA. Then I switched onto another plane to Sydney, Australia. Then I took another plane to Melbourne, Australia. It took me about 33 hours to get here in Melbourne from Philly. It is 16 hours ahead of you here. So what time is it now where I am at? I am a day ahead of you because I crossed the International Date Line on my way to Australia.

I am using Australian Dollars for currency but the value is almost exactly the same as a US Dollar, so the prices are basically the same.

I walked out to the beach in Melbourne today to take a look at the ocean. What ocean was I looking at? It is Spring here going into Summer. As you know, the seasons are opposite here in the Southern Hemisphere. It is a bit strange seeing all the holiday decorations go up here and it is so warm. Generally it is a bit cooler here in Melbourne then the other cities I will be traveling to. It is about 70 degrees here for the high in the daytime. Melbourne is in Southern Australia. The penguins travel here from Antarctica and come on the shores here. There are also lots of seal colonies.

I will be traveling to other places in Australia including Cairns which is in the northern part of the continent. I will be scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef while there and I hope to post some good pictures. I will also be traveling to Sydney before I return back home next week. I am hoping to also see some Koala Bears, crocodiles, and kangaroos while I am here.

I always try the local food when I am traveling. Today I tried a Vegemite Sandwich and it was horrible!!! Your teachers may remember the band “Men at Work” back in the 1980’s who sang about them. It is basically bread with condensed dark brown yeast spread like butter. Yuck! It was gross! Never again!

I will try and post something each day during my trip. Feel free to send me any questions on Australia while I am here!