Queensday

Today we celebrate the birthday of Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands (Queen of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld).

We were invited by the Consul-General to attend the reception in honour of the Queens 70th birthday. The event was held in the Sydney Masonic Centre and we shook hands and congratulated the Consul-General Ms Margarita M Bot and the Consul Mr Paul Thépass and their spouse.

There where drinks, bitterballen, cheese with a little Dutch flag, rookworst and haring. There also was a raffle for 2 tickets to the Netherlands, which we didn't win. We all sang the national anthem and did 3 hurray's for the Queen!

    

The Consul-General on the right                              

                  Arjan eating cheese                    

Half a year in Australia

Today we are exactly half a year in Australia! To celebrate we went to see Billy Elliot the Musical in the Capitol Theatre. The musical was absolutely great and a must-see for everyone!!!

Set against the historic British miners' strike of the 1980s, this story follows the journey of a young boy raised in a small mining town who, after stumbling across a ballet class while on his way to a boxing lesson, realises that his future lays not in the boxing ring, but on stage as a dancer.

The Red Centre

From the 17th till the 21st we took a tour through Australia's Red Centre. You can see the route we took on the map below. About 700km.

View Larger Map

Thursday

Today was our flight from Sydney to Alice Springs. After picking up our rental car (a Nissan Patrol 4WD) we drove to the hotel to freshen up and took off again to drive towards the east, to have  a look at some of the "gaps" in the Eastern MacDonnell Ranges. The Emily and Jessie Gap. After that we were right on time to feed the Rock Wallabies.

Arriving at Alice Springs Airport

Feeding a Wallaby


A little Joey in its mums pouch

Friday

Today we had a long day ahead of us. We drove from Alice Springs to Kings Canyon via the Mereenie Loop (partially unsealed road). We stopped for walks at Standley Chasm, the Ochre pits, Ormiston Gorge and Gosse Bluff. This last stop is a very special one, and one of the sights we didn't see a few years ago.

Gosse Bluff is an impact crater formed by the impact of a comet approximately 142 million years ago. The original crater rim has been estimated at about 22 km in diameter, but this has been eroded away. The 5km diameter, 150m  high crater-like feature is now exposed. You can drive into the crater (a very rough 4WD track) and all of a sudden you are surrounded by the crater wall. This place is also a sacred place for the Aboriginals. The crater is clearly visible from the sky on Google earth as well.

    
Gosse Bluff seen from ISS       Gosse Bluff behind our car


Gosse Bluff from a distance

      
Ruud and the plains              Our first sighting of a Dingo

Saturday

Another big day, get up really early for the 6km walk of the Kings Canyon rim.

    


A lot of uneven steps

Panoramic view of the Canyon

 
The Canyon wall

After the early walk we had to drive on to Uluru. The road is a normal sealed road again from Kings Canyon on. We arrived in time near Uluru (Ayers Rock) for the famous sunset.

Sunset at Uluru

    
Being a good son-in-law I always manage to serve a chilled Pinot Grigio for special occasions, even from the back of our Patrol.

Sunday

We needed to get up even earlier today, at 6:00am, because Sunrise is at 7:04 am today. It took a while to get a good spot, but we had a great view of the sun rising and slowly setting Uluru into the morning light. We spent the afternoon looking at Uluru in more close up by doing some of the base walks. The Anangu people prefer that visitors do not climb Uluru.

 
Ancient Aboriginal rock painting

Monday

Again an early morning, wake up at 5:30 (and Ruud didn't like a thing about that). The drive to the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) is about 27km to the west of Uluru. It is a beautiful rock formation and much much quieter then Uluru.  After the sunrise from one of the viewing platforms, with some muffins and juice from the local IGA we got ready to do the Valley of the Winds walk (Walpa Gorge). This is a wonderful 7.4 km walk. Unfortunately there were millions of bush-flies we had to swat away the whole time. After the walk we had to get back to the airport for our flight back to Sydney.

    
Sunrise and Uluru                  Sunrise at Kata Tjuta

    
Walking and walking                  A Roo!          

The end of the trip, Uluru from the plane.

More Parents Visiting

Thursday the 10th of April, Arjan's parents arrived in Sydney.

 

Friday

The first day was again reserved for acclimatisation and a bit of resting. Arjan took them on a walking tour of the city and they climbed up the pylon of the Harbour bridge.

 
Ruud and Riet with the Opera House in the back

 
View of Sydney Harbour from the pylon of the Harbour bridge

Saturday

Saturday we drove to The Royal National Park. Here we did a walk from Wattamolla Beach to Curracurrong (and back), which took us about 3 hours (and not 2 hours, as the ranger had told us).

    

Eagle Rock

Curracurrong, the waterfall drops in the ocean.

 
Apple pie as reward for the hard work

Sunday

Sunday was a day with some autumn rainfall, so we left home a bit late, and decided to drive towards the clear skies. Which took us to Palm Beach. We climbed up the slippery path up to the lighthouse, which unfortunately was closed. However we did have a great view. In Avalon awaited some more pies, cakes and coffees.

Barrenjoey lighthouse

Stroopwafels

Today we went shopping in the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre. Out of curiosity I did an investigation of the shelves in the Norton St supermarket. I came across several Dutch products like beschuit, appelmoes, appelstroop, speculaas and 1 thing I just couldn't resist buying: Stroopwafels. Haven’t tried them yet, I will probably keep them for a special occasion. 

Parents off to WA

Tuesday the 1st of April my parents left Sydney for Perth to visit my Mums cousin. They will fly back to Amsterdam from there, so this was the point to say goodbye. As you can see they have had a great time in Sydney.

    
saying goodbye at Sydney Domestic Terminal

We have about one week to get ready for our next visitors!