La Francesita...

North Queensland: Atherton Tables II

2011-08-16T14:04:00.014+02:00

After Cairns, we left the coast for a little while and went inside, around the Atherton Tables again, to walk around lakes, see nice falls,

not huge falls, but nice ones, as always in the middle of eucalyptus and ferns.

At the end of the day, awesome views along the banana plantations, a stop to buy some,

and then incredible sunset in the smoke of the burning sugar cane plants (a priori they burn them during winter to kill insects). Eventually we met with two cassowaries, first in the garden of a house then on a beach. They don’t look really friendly and seem to have very sharp claws so you don’t want to get too close, but it was great fun seeing them!

North Queensland: outer reef

2011-08-15T10:10:00.007+02:00

From Cairns, we went for another boat trip to go snorkeling on the outer reef. Another great day in the water, more multitude of colorful fishes and coral, all great, except that a whole day on a boat or snorkeling is harsh for people subject to sea sickness ;-)

North Queensland: Low Isles

2011-08-12T02:27:00.005+02:00

After the rainforest, the reef. Hélène had already chosen her island: Low Isles, so here we went on the first day of perfect weather there, since a couple of weeks, said the captain. Lucky us!

And even luckier when equipped with fin, mask and snorkel we started to explore the reef around the island, were amazed by the number of fishes with so many different colors (same thing with the coral), found Nemo and a turtle and then swam with another one :-) Someone said perfect day? :-D

North Queensland: Mossman and Cape Tribulation

2011-08-11T07:25:00.017+02:00

After A LOT of kilometers in the bush, and after our great encounters with roos, it was now time to hit the coast, which we reached through the Atherton Tablelands. When eventually the ocean appeared behind a turn, it was a pretty nice feeling.

But instead of going straight to the beach, we went to the wet forest and had our first swim there in the middle of the jungle. A bit chilly but not that bad, and as it was warm and humid outside, it was nice to dive into fresh water.

The following day we crossed the Daintree river and were then in Cape Tribulation. More walks in the rainforest: impressive roots, impressive climbing plants, and impressive ferns!

And finally: impressively awesome beaches. But crocodile and jellyfish signs everywhere remind you that “Australia harbors more things that can kill you in extremely nasty ways than anywhere else” (Bill Bryson) Did not see any of those though! (Truth is: the probability of meeting a jellyfish in winter is rather low :-))

Queensland: rough road and roos

2011-08-10T10:54:00.009+02:00

After hundreds and almost thousands of kilometers in the outback we were about to reach the Queensland coast and we were a bit sad because we thought our days of meeting with roos would be over and we had only seen a few of them.

Then we hit an unpaved road, “rough road” as the signs said, which sometimes seemed to us a bit of an understatement. And here started a great safari day, 4 pairs of eyes looking desperately in the trees for roos.

At first it was only road trains and zebus (this one happened to cross just when I wanted to take a picture of a road train).

But eventually they all showed up, and we saw dozens of roos, staring at us, then jumping, then staring again! We love roos :-)

Northern Territory: Devils Marbles

2011-08-09T01:51:00.007+02:00

After Uluru and Kings canyon, we picked up our new best friend Campervan in Alice Spring, and hit the road for roughly 1700km of pretty much nothing: bush, outback, desert, call it however you want, it is big and flat but it is true that along the way you observe some changes along the vegetation. So anything worth to be seen on the road (telegraph stations, gas stations ;-) kangaroos staring at you) was highly appreciated. In the north of Alice Spring stand these funny rocks along the highway: the Devils Marbles.

Great shapes, incredible how they broke (what water infiltration can do!) and how they stand looking to be in an unstable equilibrium. Night fires (that is at 6pm, you don’t want to drive by night there and hit a roo) in camp sites along the highway.

Northern Territory: Kings Canyon

2011-07-30T14:59:00.016+02:00

Kings Canyon: very nice as usual with canyons, because you don’t see them coming and suddenly here they appear! Nice first short walk inside the canyon and then all around it, on top of it.

So as almost every summer, we would had loved a geologist there to further explain us, but since Aussies put nice explanation panels everywhere, we got most of it (sand compacted with water, different layers of this, etc).

Fantastic views from everywhere, and gum trees also in most improbable places.

The walk took us more time than we thought because they were lots of candidate places for super hero or skydiver pictures,

and we got great ideas from the family with kids we were following, thanks to them!

More trees and spectacular views,

and then the Garden of Eden. Yeah it also took us more time because we took every single proposed detour :-) And finally the other side of the canyon, even more vertiginous!

Northern Territory: Uluru 2 and Olgas

2011-07-27T10:05:00.008+02:00

The following morning, we woke up at dawn, to watch the sunrise on Uluru, which is obviously different than the sunset (and from a different place). Far away we also saw the sun lightening up the Olgas (other massive rocks) that were our next destination.

Ok, we look stoned and exhausted on the picture, jetlag (not for me though) and a night fighting the cold explain it I guess. Before heading to see the Olga, another walk around Uluru, its funny faces,

its great benches (I am looking for a good place in the world to be reincarnated as a bench: so many choices…) and paintings.

Then come the Olgas,

which leave us speechless again, and an almost final and further view on Uluru (still great, whatever the distance is).

Time then to hit the road, see some camels on the way and Mount Conner (doesn’t it look a little like some of the ones from Monument Valley?)

Northern Territory: Uluru

2011-07-26T13:50:00.012+02:00

Given that July is school holiday in Australia (but not August then ;-)) I flew along with the Parisiens to Ayers Rock to start a road trip in center and north-eastern Australia. First stop: Uluru.

Ok you have seen it in every single postcard of Australia, any guide, but when you face it (or see it from the plane) you are just in awe…

So we posed in front of it, made part of the loop around, (note that the Moon is in its first quarter on this picture and not its last ;-))

found where one of our guide took its front picture, and head to the sunset parking,

so amazing that we must have over 100 pictures of the sunset between the four of us.

At night (coldest night ever in the tent! and we have been to Iceland and Scotland the previous summers, well the desert is much colder!), we played ghosts with the camera in front of Uluru again.

The opera house

2011-07-08T14:46:00.005+02:00

On my first week-end in Sydney I eventually went close to the opera house (worth the bike ride)

and then on the harbour bridge. So there is a walkway and the views are great and it is already high enough and scary enough… or… you can spend 200 AUS $ and “climb” on the arch of the bridge (much higher). I guess walking on the walkway is enough ;-)

Sunday on the beach

2011-07-03T10:29:00.005+02:00

Today I took the bike again, and a map and I headed to the beach. I crossed a giant park, went up a very high hill, then down and up a few more times and there was Bronte beach! Awesome! Beautiful, plenty of surfing, a pool, rocks, I so regretted not having brought along the bathing suit! But I would not have guessed the water here would be warmer (18/19º) in winter than in august in Bretagne ;-)

Then headed to Bondi beach, and while I was missing my swimsuit, they were there celebrating a winter festival and had an ice skating rink up on the beach (with an impressive cooling system to manage to keep ice in ice form when it is 20º and sunny).
Si ça c’est l’hiver australien, je signe :-)

Fan des probabilités

2011-06-27T11:06:00.010+02:00

Un petit exo de proba pour compenser celui neutralisé au bac la semaine dernière : deux joueuses de rugby se connaissent à Barcelone. L’année d’après l’une part au MIT et l’autre à Philadelphia mais passe à Boston, et donc elles se rencontrent là. 4 ans après, quelle est la probabilité qu’elles coïncident de nouveau à Sydney ? Sans doute pas très élevée, mais ma cops était là quelques jours pour une conf et donc on est allées célébrer notre premier week-end australien comme il se devait !
Va, un poco de castellano también por una vez ;-) Celebrando que una vez más, nos hemos encontrado con Jas a la otra punta del mundo! Ya nos había pasado en Boston aquí, y ahora hemos coincidido en Sydney por milagros de calendario! eso merecía bien una cena/fiesta aprovechando nuestro primer finde australiano :-) Sydney by night promete :-)

Adieu veaux, vaches, cochons, bienvenus kangourous, koalas, crocodiles, serpents et autres

2011-06-22T12:05:00.004+02:00

C’est reparti pour une nouvelle aventure, cette fois down under, et plus concrètement Sydney. Un nouveau projet de recherche à l’University of Sydney mélangeant de l’expérimental avec du numérique :-) parfait quoi !

Donc en premier post j’aurais pu vous faire une photo de l’opéra ou autre élément caractéristique de Sydney, mais ce n’est que mon deuxième jour ici et pour l’instant je n’ai pas mis les pieds au centre de Sydney. J’ai vu le soleil se lever à mon arrivée après quelques jours de voyage jusqu’ici, j’ai dormi 12h de suite pour récupérer les quelques nuits perdues, j’ai vu la lune à l’envers par rapport à chez nous, j’ai commencé à expérimenter la conduite du vélo à gauche (pas évident), et avec casque (l’Australie fut le premier pays à rendre le port du casque obligatoire à vélo), je suis arrivée le 21 juin donc suis passée du printemps à l’hiver le jour du solstice, je suis allée les deux jours à la fac et ça a des airs de Buffalo / Boston (je me perds dans les bâtiments, les gens font 9h-17h et parlent pas beaucoup et on mange des hamburgers au déj :-)), et puis à 17h il fait nuit, et pour l’instant le vélo de nuit à gauche ne me rassure pas pour aller vadrouiller !

Donc le tourisme sera pour ce week-end et ma première photo australienne est celle des toilettes de ma nouvelle maison car j’en suis fan. Un petit lavabo qui sert à alimenter la cuve c’est quand même bien fait ! Par contre pas encore trouvé d’évier qui ait la forme qu’il faut pour voir si l’eau s’écoule bien à l’envers !