The land down under

[scotsman]

I'm on holiday with my wife visiting Australia. I'll post a few random photos to show that the country of OZ isn't anything like the Emerald City.

A herd of wild kangaroos grazing on a peninsula - 30' tall cyclone driven waves crashing on the rocks below.

[scotsman]

A Lorokeet feeding in a palm tree.

[Mark251]

Beautiful scene!  Thanks for sharing 

[RadSav]

Just last week the wife and I were invited to Australia to hunt on a huge private ranch.  If the wife's surgery goes well we will be heading over next year.  Can you give any details on how long of flight, airline and what we might want to avoid in getting there?

[scotsman]

Hi Rad,

Where in Australia is the ranch? This is a BIG country.

The direct flight from Sea Tac to the east coast of AUS is roughly 14 hours. We broke that into two sections by making the first leg an overnight stay in Honolulu, then the following day Hawaii to brisbane. That makes it a more palatable 6 hrs / 9 hrs. Our final leg will be a flight across to Perth on the west coast - another 5+ hours.

That plan also got its the best rates. Alaska airlines to Hawaii was cheap. We took  Hawaii airlines to brisbane, also surprisingly reasonable. A great benefit of this flight is its rarely full. The plane was less than 1/2 occupied so we could actually find empty rows to lie down flat to sleep.

One factiod about Australia is there are more things that can kill you or generally make life miserable than anywhere else in the world. Everything from 11 different species of snakes, to bees, jellyfish and even innocent looking plants sting, burn, or have lethal venom. A pretty shell on the beach may harbor a hermit crab type critter that can kill a large mammal. Just  do your homework - people here take 'em in stride.

A counterpoint is that Australians are the most friendly people on earth. Soon as they hear our American accent they go out of their way to make us feel accepted. I have only been here once before (on R&R from Vietnam 50 years ago).  I was treated wonderfully then and was a bit concerned things had changed. No worries, mate!

[RadSav]

Where in Australia is the ranch? This is a BIG country.

Thank you very much for that reply.  That is helpful!

I know very little about Australia geographically so excuse me if none of this makes sense.  I have studied a fair amount on the animals there as well as the poisonous snakes and vegetation.  Just paid little attention about each region and it's relationship to major population centers.  Never figured I could ever afford and/or find the time to hunt there so   Hadn't heard about that hermit crab.  Sounds like a walk in the tide pools might not be high on our list of things to do.

The hunt would be on multiple ranches depending on what game and quality of game we wanted to chase.  The smallest ranch is suppose to be in the neighborhood of 10,000 acres.  Hopefully you can make sense of these locations - Northern Queensland, Brisbane Valley, Coburg Peninsula, Toowoomba.  Not sure if these are states and cities, territories and cities...or what.  Very early in the discussion stages at the moment.  Most of the topics have been about broadheads, trophy Red Deer and other antler/horn candy!!  Figured once I got caught up on work I would break out the map and try to better understand where all this is.

[JKEEN33]

Could not agree more on the splitting the trip up. I flew into Singapore Friday. Flew 13 hours to Taiwan, had a two hour layover and then another 5 hours to Singapore. Way to many hours crammed on a plane. If you don't fly much you may think the window is going to be great. Go for the isle. You can always get up and stretch your legs. I was actually thinking of taking a week and going to AU when I'm done working here since I'm already fairly close.

[SemperFidelis97]

Great pictures, looking foreword to more.  I would love to visit Australia one day myself.

[pianoman9701]

Thanks for sharing and I hope you share more pictures. I loved Australia. The people were great and the ones I met loved Americans. I went there just after the gun ban took effect. The food was cool, too. I had kangaroo tail, wild boar, and buffalo. Lot of Asian influence in the food, as well.

[scotsman]

Rad, it's easy to overlook the size of Australia. Queensland is just one State and its roughly two and a half times the size of Texas.

Tow of the locations you mentioned are easy to get to: Brisbane valley and Twoomba look like they are less than a days  drive from the airport in Brisbane. But the other places are at the very northern tip of Queensland over a thousand miles away.

And don't forget that the roads here are right hand drive. It took me several days to start to feel comfortable driving and I still have to be on alert all the time.

Photos from the rainforest...

[Sumpnneedskillin]

I made three port visits there during my time in the Navy.  Townsville, Freemantle and Sydney.  I dream of making it back there someday.  I also wish I had more time to explore things while I was there. 

Two places/things to do that I recommend:
Townsville (or anywhere along the NE coast) -  take a snorkeling/diving trip to the Great Barrier Reef. 
Syndey - take a day and go visit the Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains National Park near Katoomba.