Australian Natural Adventures

your Australian journey continues....

Day 10 - Wednesday, December 5: Sydney
Discover Sydney today, a wonderfully cosmopolitan city. Just a short walk from your hotel (the desk can give you directions) is the office of The Rocks Walking Tours, from where you will start your 11.30am easy 90-minute walking tour of this historic and vibrant area. Many of the buildings date from the very first years of the settlement, and are convict-built. You will get a good insight to the history of Sydney, and Australia. The rest of the day is free to explore this vibrant and friendly city. In addition to great shops to buy the needed souvenirs and gifts, just a short walk is the Botanic Gardens and the Domain, which has good views of the harbor, an abundant bird life, and a colony of huge grey fruit-bats, whose wingspans are approximately three feet. The Australian Museum, with its impressive collection of Aboriginal artifacts and art, is also close by. The Taronga Zoo is a ferry ride across the harbor, and a lunch or dinner cruise is a good way to truly appreciate this water-side city. During today or tomorrow you may wish to take a guided tour of the Opera House; tours leave on the half hour from 9.30am until 4.45pm. This can be followed by dinner and a show, or just a show, in one of the Opera House theatres, depending on your tastes. A calendar of events can be found here. Everything is within walking distance of your hotel, although the Museum is a little far and you may wish to take the bus or a train - Sydney is extremely well-serviced by buses and the underground.       (B)

Day 11 – Thursday, December 6: Sydney
Continue to get to know Sydney. First visit Featherdale Wildlife Park, a zoo in the outer suburbs dedicated to Australian wildlife. It’s a great place to meet some of Australia’s best known animals, such as koalas, kangaroos and wombats. Back in Sydney proper lunch can be taken on a cruise on the harbor, with views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, as well as the boats and ferries of what is often called the most beautiful city harbor in the world. The best way to really see Sydney Harbour is on a ferry. While there are tours that utilize the ferries, usually with lunch or morning tea, the cheapest way to do this is to simply buy a return ticket to one of the up-harbor places such as Homebush (where the Olympics were held). You’ll see a map of all the places they go at Circular Quay. The ferries have a snack/meal bar, and you can just get an easy lunch or snack there, sit back, and enjoy the ride. The advantage to this, as opposed to a typical guided tour, is the lack of a person telling you about the homes of Australian television personalities, of whom you have never heard. The ferry to Manly goes in the other direction, and as it passes the Entrance, where the harbor enters the Pacific, can get interestingly rough at times. This ferry will pass the Opera House and various other landmarks, and is also a good run.

Day 12 – Friday, December 7: Sydney / Melbourne / Phillip Island / Melbourne
Return to the airport this morning to fly south to Melbourne. After checking in to your hotel you join a small group tour to Phillip Island. The penguins come ashore at dusk, which is not until about 8.30pm, and you’ll spend the late afternoon at the Phillip Island Wildlife Park, where you’ll enjoy free-ranging kangaroos and wallabies, and get close-up to the wombats and koalas. Your guide will explain the life history and conservation of penguins, and other wildlife, and you’ll get close to these very cute birds as they waddle past your feet to their burrows. You return to Melbourne at about 11pm.

Day 13 – Saturday, December 8: Melbourne / Brisbane Ranges / Geelong
You are picked up this morning to travel into Melbourne to begin your exploration of Western Victoria. Along the way your naturalist guide leads you into 'real Australia' to see kangaroos, koalas, abundant birdlife and to discover a rich Aboriginal heritage. You learn about native animals and plants both in the famous open-range grasslands of Serendip Sanctuary on the Western Plains and in the bushlands of Brisbane Ranges National Park. These environments provide the perfect introduction to Australia's unique wildlife and indigenous culture. Watch Eastern Grey Kangaroos in large free ranging groups, see emus, wallabies, koalas and other unique Australian wildlife and enjoy a delicious bush lunch. The You Yangs Ranges are home to a large and healthy population of wild koalas and we rarely miss out on multiple sightings of these delightful creatures. Your guide will also share with you the great significance of the Western Plains to Aboriginal people. The end of the day finds you at a B&B in Geelong, a small city on the banks of Corio Bay.    (L,D)

Day 14– Sunday, December 9: Great Ocean Road
Victoria’s Great Ocean Road has some spectacular coastal scenery, beautiful in sunny times, but even bad weather can add to the sense that the next stop is Antarctica . From Geelong you head south to Torquay, and follow the Great Ocean Road along the surging surf coast to the magnificent rainforests of Otway National Park. After short walks here you travel on through Port Campbell National Park, where your imagination can go wild along the rugged Shipwreck Coast, although given the number of shipwrecks, and the heroic actions of several locals to assist, imagination is often reality. Linger a while to take in some of nature's handiwork at the 12 Apostles (now 11), the Loch Ard Gorge and huge limestone cliffs. Your guide will relate stories about the terrible shipwrecks of the past, and stories of heroism. Enjoy dinner at a local pub and stay tonight at a delightful B&B over looking the beautiful Hopkins River.       (BLD)

Day 15 – Monday, December 10: Great Ocean Road / Melbourne
This morning there’s time to have one last look at the coast in the dramatic morning light before returning to Melbourne across the vast grasslands of the Western Plains. Created by intense volcanic activity over the past 2 million years, the 7000 volcanoes of the Western Plains are now extinct but the resultant savannah is now pasture to the richest wool growing area on earth - a wonderful example of Australia's great range lands. The soils also produce some great wines, and there are many small boutique wineries taking advantage of the terroir. We stop en route to drive to the top of an extinct volcano with spectacular views across the plains. From the summit we see some of the hundreds of volcanic lakes scattered across the plains. Later stop at Lake Corangamite, the largest permanent lake in Australia, often covered with prolific birdlife. You return to Melbourne in the late afternoon, where you are returned to your hotel.     (BL)

Day 16 – Tuesday, December 11: Melbourne
Your last full day in Australia, and this morning we suggest getting a taste of typical Melbourne life. At the 120 year- old Queen Victoria Market there's not much from clothing to the weekly meat supply that can't be bought, and everything in between, and a lot of characters to serve and entertain you. The market is open from 6am until about noon, and is most easily visited on one of Melbourne’s ubiquitous trams. Other highlights of Melbourne are the excellent Royal Botanic Gardens, bordered by the Shrine of Remembrance strategically situated looking down St Kilda Rd. In Fitzroy Gardens is Captain Cook’s Cottage, brought in pieces from its original site in England and rebuilt in the park. It’s fascinating to see just how small an upper middle class home was in 18thC England. The Yarra River is a delightful place for a stroll, and across the intersection from Flinders Street Station is an annex of the National Gallery of Victoria, which holds Australia’s pre-eminent collection of Australian art, and also a superb collection of European masterpieces. The main gallery is just across the Yarra on St Kilda Rd, a short walk from downtown. The Melbourne Museum is in a new building near the historic, World Heritage-listed Exhibition Building in the Carlton Gardens, a short walk away. There are several galleries, including ones devoted to Victorian Aboriginal Culture and Pacific Island culture. The Exhibition Building, still in use, is in the grand tradition of World Exposition buildings of the 19th Century. Your “farewell to Australia” dinner tonight is something different; you enjoy the sights of Melbourne while dining aboard a turn of the 20C tram as it roams Melbourne’s streets and boulevards.       (D)

Day 17 – Wednesday, December 12: Melbourne / Los Angeles / Birmingham
Sadly mid-morning you leave Australia, but taking many memories and permanent souvenirs. Due to the International Dateline, you arrive back into Los Angeles early this same morning, in plenty of time to catch your flight back to. Birmingham, arriving about 7pm.        (*L,*M,*B)

B: Breakfast; L: Lunch; D: Dinner; M: Meal; *in flight meal

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