Cairns to Sydney

Well, here we are back in Sydney and on our last 4 days....We will be doing some exploring of places we have seen from a distance but not been to personally. This evening we just walked a few blocks from the hotel for dinner and found a whole new world. It is just amazing how this city is a mix of the very old buildings and the very new, modern buildings. Just fabulous.

As Australia's largest city, Sydney embraces its harbour, taking the sea and natural waterways to its heart. The grand style of the Sydney Opera House has made the city the landmark of the South Pacific. Everywhere we go, each city, town, village or hamlet is ranked per population within Australia.

Yesterday in Cairns, we walked the 2+ km from the hotel to the city centre and explored and did some photography of the buildings there. On our way across a street, we bumped into two of the 'kids' who were on our camping trip. They had been all the way up to Darwin and flew into Cairns earlier yesterday morning and were so tired.

Cairns is the heart of the Tropical North. It is a delightful blend of colonial architecture, with grand publis and commercial buildings. Cairns is the focal point for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and is surrounded by World Heritage listed rainforests.

The weather in Cairns is strange. One minute it is sunny and hot and the next it will be raining so hard you could not see across the street and muggy and sticky. Our hotel room was nothing to write home about and smelled like someone had overflowed the bathtub but did not dry out the walls. Musty. So we slept with the balcony window open and let the wind blow through. It seemed to do the job, at least while we were there.

We went to the TJAPUKAI CULTURAL PARK for dinner and a show. It was a powerful and personal performance that left us with a deep and lasting memory of the ancient indigenous culture. At the lakeside, we became part of an ancient corroboree ritual which climaxed in the ceremonial making of a fire. This created a pathway from the darkness up to the restaurant for our buffet dinner.

Dinner was a buffet of many dishes and wonderful desserts, soups and breads. One could eat here one night and be full for the week there was so much food. Delicious..

After dinner there was another show by the Aboringinal players. They depicted their life of hunting and gathering. An example of this - one player was a kangaroo and the others were the hunters. Another dance was of snakes, which play a huge part of the ancient Aboriginal beliefs. There was about an hour of the dance all the while one of the players did the digeredoo and the rest clapped their 2 boomerangs together for sound. We all participated by clapping or banging on the tables. Very energizing and interesting.

Afterward we had time to wander the shop and maybe purchase some Aboriginal art work. When an original piece of artwork is displayed, there is usually a picture of the artist and a signature of the artist. Every piece of artwork has a story from dreamtime. We had already purchased an original piece from an artist in Alice Springs but the store is still very interesting.

And today we packed and flew to Sydney....

NOTE: I want to thank everyone who sent birthday wishes. I could not personally reply to you because I do not have email addys with me. We will be back in Canada on aug 31st, hopefully with no jetlag and ready to go and I will email you.

PS I turned my computer on last evening in Cairns and it worked.......So one less tribulation..

Hugs to everyone...