Someone (I'm talking to you Fiona) wanted me to post our itinerary, so here it is.
December 6 - Depart KC, fly to DFW, Fly 16 hours direct to Brisbane.
December 8 - Arrive 6 am in Brisbane - Hoping to visit Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary en route to Aaronlee Retreat in Mt Tamborine. Three nights here, visiting Binna Burra and the Green Mountain areas of Lamington National Park and anything else that draws our attention
December 11-15 - Road trip time, staying in Warwick a few nights, one night Toowomba, Chasing birds
December 15 Brisbane overnight
December 16 fly early morning to Cairns, pick up Alan Gillanders on way out to Chillagoe
December 17 - Chillagoe caves tour, drive to Undara, Sunset tour Undara
December 18 - Undara Lava tubes tour, drive back to Yungaburra, would like to do some of the waterfalls circuit
December 19- more birding with Alan Gillanders day and nocturnal mammals tour night, visit platypus viewing area
December 20 transfer to Kingfisher Lodge, Julatten - birding and critters, visit butterfly sanctuary Kuranda
December 21-22 base at Kingfisher - visit Mareeba, Mossman, Mt. Lewis, Mt. Molloy and whatever strikes our fancy
December 23 transfer to Red Mill House, Daintree Villlage, stay to December 6. Take snorkeling trip out of Port Douglas, River Tours with Ian Worcester, drive up into Daintree.
December 26th, Overnight Mercure Harborside in Cairns, Steve birding the mangroves, we visit Flecker Botanical Gardens.
December 27th Fly to Sydney, stay with friends. During week visit Royal National Park, Capertee Valley, NYE in Sydney
Jan 4 fly home
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Two weeks and we'll be in Brisbane!
All right, blogging it is. If you would like to follow along, this is how I will be recording this journey, rather than emails, Fodors, and/or Facebook.
That said, the countdown has begun in earnest now. I'm marking more things off the checklist, and I'm about to do a practice packing run to see if I have too much/too little stuff. My level of panic about getting everything done at work is sky high.
But, I'm really excited! Plus, it's currently 22 degrees here, and look at this from Brisbane!
We land at 6 am on a Sunday. Tentative plans are to shower at the airport, pick up the car, and head to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Koala Cuddling will commence.
Between now and then, we have Thanksgiving, and certainly one of the things I am thankful for is that we have these incredible travel opportunities.
That said, the countdown has begun in earnest now. I'm marking more things off the checklist, and I'm about to do a practice packing run to see if I have too much/too little stuff. My level of panic about getting everything done at work is sky high.
But, I'm really excited! Plus, it's currently 22 degrees here, and look at this from Brisbane!
We land at 6 am on a Sunday. Tentative plans are to shower at the airport, pick up the car, and head to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Koala Cuddling will commence.
Between now and then, we have Thanksgiving, and certainly one of the things I am thankful for is that we have these incredible travel opportunities.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
More Checklist Items Plus, BofA is getting awfully snooty for this small town
Every day I have to check a few more things off the list. The bank and credit card companies are duly informed of the travel so they don't see strange activity and block my purchases (I'm going to need those cards!). Stinger suit for snorkeling has been received, and so on. All scheduled bill payments are ready to go. So I'm feeling good about things.
(here's the stinger suit I got :
http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Black-Lycra-Scuba-Diving/dp/B001P6EMF2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1384919791&sr=8-3&keywords=stinger+suit)
We will be using a personal guide for some of the trip, birdwatching and wildlife watching. He's great, we spent 1/2 day with him before. This year we are using him for 4 days, plus I need to pay for lodging and tours at one of the locations. He doesn't take credit cards, and I don't want to carry that much cash.
So, I headed up to my local BofA branch to arrange a wire transfer. There have been lots of changes there lately, and honestly I don't think they are all for the best. It's not exactly your friendly hometown bank anymore. I live in a fairly rural area, and we expect friendly. So, I can't just do it. I have to make an appointment to do it.
I'm pretty sure I can just head over to Wal-Mart and do it by walking up to the counter I made the appt at BofA, but I don't really understand them making it hard to do business.
(here's the stinger suit I got :
http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Black-Lycra-Scuba-Diving/dp/B001P6EMF2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1384919791&sr=8-3&keywords=stinger+suit)
So, I headed up to my local BofA branch to arrange a wire transfer. There have been lots of changes there lately, and honestly I don't think they are all for the best. It's not exactly your friendly hometown bank anymore. I live in a fairly rural area, and we expect friendly. So, I can't just do it. I have to make an appointment to do it.
I'm pretty sure I can just head over to Wal-Mart and do it by walking up to the counter I made the appt at BofA, but I don't really understand them making it hard to do business.
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Checking things off the pre-trip checklist
My husband says that I enjoy planning trips more than actually taking them. That's not true, I do love the trips, but I get almost as much fun out of the planning.
Less fun, but still necessary, are all the things that need to be taken care of when out of the country for four weeks. Then add being out of the country over Christmas.
So I need to arrange for all bills to be paid automatically (not too bad really), stop paper, hold mail....and buy and ship Christmas presents.
Luckily we don't have many gifts to buy anymore. I spent a little quality time online tonight, and I'm done! Tomorrow will be a wrapping extravaganza and I'll head off to the post office on Monday.
My husband says that I enjoy planning trips more than actually taking them. That's not true, I do love the trips, but I get almost as much fun out of the planning.
Less fun, but still necessary, are all the things that need to be taken care of when out of the country for four weeks. Then add being out of the country over Christmas.
So I need to arrange for all bills to be paid automatically (not too bad really), stop paper, hold mail....and buy and ship Christmas presents.
Luckily we don't have many gifts to buy anymore. I spent a little quality time online tonight, and I'm done! Tomorrow will be a wrapping extravaganza and I'll head off to the post office on Monday.
Friday, November 15, 2013
We head for Australia 3 weeks from today. By this time 3 weeks from now we will be sitting in the DFW airport waiting for our 16 hour flight. I can't wait!
Rather than posting a trip report via Fodors.com which is what I have always done in the past, I'm thinking about blogging instead. I've never blogged before, and know nothing about it, so this is a trial balloon.
This will be our third trip to Australia, and our longest yet. Getting 4 weeks off of work at one time took a lot of doing, and I am sure they won't allow it again so we need to make the most of it.
What do we do? My husband is an avid birdwatcher, so that consumes a lot of our time. We are primarily interested in the natural wonders of Australia. So, birdwatching, bushwalking, snorkeling and seeking out native Australian critters.
I also have a good friend in Sydney, so we will head down there for our last week of vacation, and will be there over New Year's Eve, which is pretty exciting.
All right, let's publish this and see what happens!
Rather than posting a trip report via Fodors.com which is what I have always done in the past, I'm thinking about blogging instead. I've never blogged before, and know nothing about it, so this is a trial balloon.
This will be our third trip to Australia, and our longest yet. Getting 4 weeks off of work at one time took a lot of doing, and I am sure they won't allow it again so we need to make the most of it.
What do we do? My husband is an avid birdwatcher, so that consumes a lot of our time. We are primarily interested in the natural wonders of Australia. So, birdwatching, bushwalking, snorkeling and seeking out native Australian critters.
I also have a good friend in Sydney, so we will head down there for our last week of vacation, and will be there over New Year's Eve, which is pretty exciting.
All right, let's publish this and see what happens!
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