Ep 117: The Outback, French and Phillip Islands, Australia Itinerary Part 2

Dare to Dream Physician Resources:

DM me on FB, IG, or LinkedIn to learn more about travel hacking with credit card points to get free flights, lodging, and more!

Get a bonus with Rakuten AND support the Dare to Dream Physician!
https://www.rakuten.com/r/NEODEN2

Dare to Dream Physician, Life Planning for Physicians
https://daretodreamphysician.com

DreamPhysician on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/dreamphysician/

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/weili-gray-md/

Transcript

Introduction

0:00

welcome back to another episode of the dare to dream physician travel podcast. I'm so excited. You're joining us today. And this week we are continuing on part two of my Australian itinerary. I took a trip with my family, all three generations to Australia in August of this year. And it was just one of those bucket list travels. We had so many adventures last week's episode. In part one, we talked about how I got to live out my childhood dream of hugging a Kuala at the Crumbine wildlife sanctuary. Very near gold coast, which is in Queensland. How I got to jump into Harvey bay to experience being in the ocean with the majestic humpback whale. And how my six year old daughter and I kayak on a stunning mangrove Creek and Takari island, the largest sand island in the world, and a UNESCO heritage listed site. And how I scuba dived with sea turtles, manta rays and sharks from Heron island, which is a coral Cay paradise on the great barrier reef. And we just had such a blast there. My family and I viewed the spectacular Milky way on that same island and the great barrier reef at night time. And it was just this epic family adventure. With three generations of my family, it was just so special. I had done all the travel planning. I had done all the driving and so I wanted to share my itinerary and our activities. And what I learned with you in that episode. If you have not listened to that, but so go ahead and add episode one 16 to your podcast queue. And this week. we are renewing into part two., from the last episode we had just wrapped up our four nights on the great barrier reef island and we got on a flight and flewed from Gladston in Queensland to the city of Darwin and the Northern territory. If you have not heard of the Northern territory, I'm not familiar with it. You're in for a treat. We were certainly in for a treat, the Northern territory is also known as the Outback. Even if you haven't heard the name Northern territory, you've probably heard references to the Australian Outback. It's a wild place. It's a beautiful desert land and it was the perfect start of part two to our ventures. So we flew. from glass then Queensland, we had to take a flight to Brisbane and from Brisbane, we flew to Darwin. I think it took a little bit over four hours to do the flight from Brisbane to Darwin. Again, I emphasize that Australia is a very large country. We book domestic flights on Virgin Australia airlines, which is a domestic airline in Australia, it's not directly related to the British airline, Virgin Atlantic. However, it is a partner of United airlines. So I was able to put my United mileage plus number in and we got some United credit. As we got close to Darwin, my family and I looked out the window of the plane and we're just in awe of the landscape that we could see from above, it looked like fractals. This beautiful landscape with all these. With all of these, vivid colors, The turquoise and red and blue. It's really hard to describe it with words. It was a preview of what was the com. Because the actual landscape of the Northern territory is also breathtaking in terms of the vivid desert colors that you see. So our flight arrived in Darwin, and Darwin's a very interesting city. It feels so different from Sydney and the gold coast and the Brisbane area. Darwin likes to pride itself. As being closer to Asia, closer to Jakarta Indonesia than it is to the capital Canberra so it's about the same time flying from singapore or Manila Philippines, to Darwin as it is to fly from Sydney or Melbourne. So, Darwin is located on the Timor sea. You get a very different vibe from Sydney or Melbourne. In Darwin, prides itself on being a multicultural city, the website of Darwin says that there are people from over 60 nationalities and 70 different ethnic backgrounds that called Darwin their home. The Northern territory definitely has a higher proportion of Aboriginal australians. Overall the indigenous people make up more than 30% of the population in the Northern territory. Whereas nationally in Australia they make up just over 3%. On the Northern territory government website there were even a tours that were specifically led by the Aboriginal Australians throughout the Northern territory's. Darwin has its iconic role famous street markets. It happened to be closed the day that we were there. But if you're visiting during most of the week when it's open, it is highly recommended to go and check out the delicious food from all over the world, buy souvenirs and just get a tease of this this multicultural city. Walking around the streets of downtown Darwin It was also very interesting. First of all, in August it was definitely more expensive to live in Darwin. At first I was trying to do there. Why are the prices so much higher? And then I realized, well, this is their high season. So it makes sense. Um, because half of the year, it's the rainy season and the other half of the year, it's the dry season. So there's limited time when the tourists can go, and reliably get around especially in the Kakadu area. Because it's common for the roads get flooded during the rainy season. And it's also really nice and warm weather. Whereas the Southern parts of Australia are quite cold. Like we learn later when we landed in Melbourne. From Darwin, we rented a car from the airport. We use Hertz again, just because I was familiar with them. Although at the airport, there were several different rental companies to choose from. We first got an SUV. I think it was a Toyota Highlander SUV that, even though it said it fit seven or eight people, it was really uncomfortable. So we actually talked to the guy in the parking lot and ask if there's any other alternatives. And we ended up getting a Kia carnival, the same eight passenger van that we got in Sydney. And it was so much more comfortable. Even though it took extra time, we were much happier so that is a, that is a tip. If you're renting a vehicle, before you drive. away from the parking lot, if you're unhappy with anything, make sure you talk to somebody. I tried to call the help desk back in the airport, but nobody picked up. So I found, I just literally flagged someone down in the parking lot who was able to use this walkie talkie to talk to the lady at the counter. and he also was scouting for an available vehicle that wasn't, And in fact, what we got wasn't actually available. Someone had just returned it, but it was in good shape. so, and they had already turned it over except for doing a cleaning. but it looked clean it off. And so we were happy to take the car for a couple of days. From Darwin, we drove out and we went to Kakadu national park. Kakadu national park is a, takes up a large area, of this part of Australia and they call it the top end. Cause it's the Northern part of the Northern territory. This land belongs to the Aboriginal Australians and. As we visit there, you get a sense of how amazing it is for these groups of people who learned to live in subsist in nature. In this wild Bush. And, this is the land of the salt water crocodile, the saltwater crocodile was one of the most aggressive animals on earth. if you have any fascination with saltwater crocodiles, the Northern territory is the place to see them in the wild. And, a lot of the Northern territory, especially in Kakadu, especially up north basically the warmer, the water, the more likely it will be inhabited by this whole water crocodile. So you can't swim in the water. However it is just really inspiring to see them. They are humongous. And one of the best ways to see them along with the bio diversity of bird species. In the Billabong, is, the yellow water crews. There's only one yellow water cruise and I'll put the link in the show notes. You can search for it. You can book it on TripAdvisor but to book the one that is for Dawn that the most popular and that's for Dawn, you can just go directly to the website to book. That's at Kakadu tourism.com. iT is a really phenomenal time to get on the boat before the sunrise. And as the boat is cruising through the Billabong. You see the birds that come out and eventually that's all the crocodiles that come out as well. So many different birds. Including, whistling ducks, the Mack pikeys. Eagles and the most iconic bird and Kakadu is that Jabiru and it's a beautiful bird, but it also holds its own. It's been said that it learns, how to live with the saltwater crocodiles. It doesn't taste very good to the crocodiles. When we travel here, we learn a few terms that I had never heard before. Um, including the word Billabong. So what is a Billabong? This yellow water cruise was this was a Billabong cruise. At Billabong refers to a large body of water. And it comes from an Aboriginal word in new south Wales in Australia. The literal translation. Is a water course that only runs after rain. So, a Billabong conform when a river changes its course, um, and it cuts off a section and it leaves behind a large body of water, like a lake, but it usually occurs after rain floods, the river and the nearby region. So eventually the river water breaks through. And this extra water section is formed, from rain and nearby rivers. The water in this area stays fresh and it supports a large amount of wildlife. And so that's what we got to see during the yellow water crews is all sorts of birds in the distance there are also wild boars and the Buffalo, which was introduced. You see them on the floodplains and you see the saltwater crocodiles and their natural habitat. It's a really beautiful time and it's a very peaceful cruise. The water is completely calm, which makes for beautiful reflections of the sky and the pictures. So After the other water crews, we went back to the coin, the lodge and had the buffet breakfast. Which we got as part of our hotel package. It was really nice to have a full breakfast Because during some of our travel days, all we ate was rice noodles and ramen. After the other water crews, we went and checked out the Aboriginal cultural center. Which is a really phenomenal place. They don't allow photos. The exhibits really shows the culture and the lifestyle and the art, and the creativity and the poetry. that belongs to, the multiple groups of the Australian Aboriginal people. And so highly recommend visiting the cultural center. It's free. It's included in the ticket of the national park. After visiting the original cultural center, In Kakadu, we went for a hike and Laura laundry look out. which was, one of the many places that you can go hiking, we had to be careful because the temperatures were hot. we had to bring plenty of water You either go the first thing in the morning, or we went into the afternoon, but it wasn't the middle of the day. The middle of the day was a great time to visit an indoor place the Aboriginal cultural center. And so. This was a fairly easy hike to the lookout. This is a fairly easy height to look out the sunsets. There are also really nice. If we could have stayed longer, The sunset at that at the lookout comes highly recommended. Even though we didn't go there for the sunset. It was just, give us this panoramic view. Once we hiked to the rock outcrop, it was really, really, really breathtaking. We drove back to Darwin and spent the night in an apartment hotel. Relatively expensive compared to for example, our apartment hotel in Melbourne. But again, it was their high season, and it's warmer. Later on I understood why it was more expensive. We parked our vehicle downstairs in the parking garage of the hotel. I was happy that instead of street parking, I felt like our car was really safe there. The next morning. My mom and my teenage son went on a tour with a Aboriginal Australian, Photographer, who took them on a Billabong cruise on another part of the Billabong. And, they were able to afford autograph, all of these, all the bird life and more so water crocodiles. And they had an amazing time. I stayed with my two younger kids and my aunt and uncle, we walked around downtown Darwin. And that was really nice as well. Well, no. And uncle and my kids decided to have lunch in a restaurant, but I couldn't eat any of the food because it wasn't gluten-free. So I walked around by myself to look for food that I could eat. And even though it was broad daylight, I didn't notice that I got all sorts of stairs. There were definitely men who gave me all sorts of stairs, that I did not get in Sydney or other parts of Australia. I could see how that could be uncomfortable for people. I've learned to ignore it and just stay alert. It would definitely felt very different. Walking around by myself in Sydney. Darwin is beautiful. It is so warm. The sun is the sun is blazing, and the Tim Morrissey is this beautiful hue of Aqua. Later on at, walked around with my kids and we had a really good time. so that was Darwin. We spent half of the day there and I would do it again. I would stay in downtown and walk around. End of the street market was open. I would go visit that as well. The other thing is if you're really gung ho about saltwater crocodiles, there is an exhibit called Cracow sores Cove, in Darwin. It was a little bit too touristy for us, but you really get to see the saltwater crocodile up close. If you wanted to go cage diving next to a salt water crocodile, you could also do that. It's called the cage of death. If you're an adult or a kid that loves, the adrenaline of seeing these really aggressive, massive creatures, that would be a fun attraction to go to. Okay. So we left Darwin and this is where my mom had to go back home. I dropped my mom off at the Darwin airport, so she could fly back to Brisbane and fly back to the us from there. And, from here we started the next part of her venture. The six of us that were leftover, my aunt, uncle who were in their late sixties, my three kids and I, we went and picked up a six berth motor home. This is the largest type of RB that I could find that allowed me to drive in the Northern territory. And it is a fairly massive vehicle. It probably would have been a little overwhelming of this is the first vehicle that I drove in Australia, given that the sea is on the right side. You drive on the left side of the road and that there are all these roundabouts that you do in the cities. That being said, I had driven well over 1,500 kilos. By the time I got the RV, our motor home. So it was much more manageable. We picked up this RV. And did a few practice drives on the smaller streets of Darwin. And then we headed off to our first destination. We got a board, this six person RV. There was three double beds. There was a bed in the back that you convert the couch that my aunt and uncle slept in. That was probably bigger than a full-size bed. And then where the dining area converts to another bed. That one was the smallest bed. It probably would be pretty uncomfortable to fit two adult sized people in there, but it would've been fine for two smaller kids. What we did was we had my 13 year old sleep there on his own. And then on the second floor. Above or the drivers sets is the queen size bed. You can just sit up slightly. You certainly can't stand in that area, but it's got a nice full queen-size bed. And what I ended up doing is I shared this bed with the two younger kids. It was me and the two younger kids. So we were able to sleep in this quite comfortably. For the four nights and five day trip to the Northern territory. And the reason why we got an RV motor home was because lodging would be quite tricky in this area and we would have had a little bit more certainty, more, freedom to travel and really the worst case scenario we would park in a arrest area. There were even breast areas that allow you to park overnight. A dry camp for the night, meaning you don't hook up to anything, but you can just sleep there. We ended up getting campgrounds every night of her trip. That being said, some of them you couldn't book in advance. So it was first comes first serve when you arrived. It was good to approach traveling through the Northern territory with a little bit of flexibility and an open mind, and it worked out really nicely. The first night we drove from Darwin maybe about three hours to Nim and Noack national park at the Leyland falls camp brown. The actual highway. I do the Northern territory is pretty straight. Since our vehicles really large, I drove at the maximum allowed speed limit for the vehicle, which is 110 kilometers. If I had a smaller vehicle, I could drive faster at the road speed limit, which went up to a. 130 kilometers, which is about 80 miles per hour. So most of it was pretty easy driving. The biggest challenge we encounter on the first night as we drove from Darwin to the Leyland camp brown. I was, once we got off the main highway, because it was actually dark by this time. Visibly, there was a bushfire really close to the road and. wHen I booked the campsites on the Northern territory, national park website. It did warn us. Be careful, there are natural Bush fires during this time of the year. And, basically not to worry too much about it. Um, but when you're driving through a road and this blazing fire is right near where you're driving. It is a little bit unnerving. So I booked the camp ground, I think the night before, or maybe even the morning of. And as we were driving there, this is the only road that goes to the campground off of the main highway. In the night I saw the blazing bushfire, it was maybe taking place over half of a kilometer along the sides of the roads. And. And I thought, the campground must be closed because look, how could you safely drive through that? And I thought about calling somebody, but the problem is there was no cell phone service along the main highway the store at highway, through the Northern territory. And then right in front of us, between us and the blazing bushfire was a lit up sign that says camp ground open camp. We're an open. The campground open. I thought, well, they wouldn't put that sign there. They didn't think that bushfire wasn't safe. And plus we didn't have a lot of great alternatives, I guess we could have. Gone back on the Stuart highway and kept driving and see what we have find. At night. But I talked to my aunt and uncle and we made the decision and let, just keep driving. So we did. And it was fine. The camp ground was open and people were driving through this road, yeah, this is normal to just have this big blazing fire on the sides of the roads. And we got to the camp ground safely. It was a little bit late, but we were able to find our number that we reserved. So when you're camping through the Northern territory, for the national park campgrounds, you can just reserve it on the website. There was actually no other way to reserve it. I guess you could call them, but you couldn't pay when you get there. So I just reserved it when we were in Darwin. And spent the nights. It was a fun first night in, the motor home. Everyone was able to sleep and we woke up the next morning. And my older son. Already started finding birds to photograph. And we were greeted by, the red, the red dirt. Here we are in the Northern territory having spent the night in the motor home, it was such a cool, it was such a cool feeling. So we made some breakfast in the motor home. And, that was the other thing. You have a refrigerator and it's much easier to, to carry around. By the way. what, I didn't know, but then I learned the motor home. When we picked up the motor home, they said, you really should plug in every other night, at least. Otherwise the battery for the motor home might go too low. Even though it charges when you're driving. And especially the fridge, you don't want to lose the food in your fridge. So we tried to heat that advice, but the first night, the Leyland camp brown did not have any hookups. So we put The fridge on the lower settings, to try to conserve the battery. And then when we drove it the next day, the battery to the camper would charge. Leland campground is part of Illumina national park and that area, that Leland falls hiking area was beautiful. That was our inaugural hike. Even though it was August and it's their winter. It's still a very dry place. When the sun is out, you could really get dehydrated easily. So we made sure to carry water. We actually didn't quite carry enough. If I were to do that hike again, I will carry more. But we did the hike and we had to really conserve water as to not run out. But aside from that detail, it was really, really a beautiful area. You see the waterfall, which is really gorgeous and we didn't think of this, but if you bring your bathing suit, you could take a dip in the Creek and the waterfall, which would have been perfect because it started to get pretty hot. So. That was a great first stop on our RV adventure driving down the store highway. after our hike, we made some food in the camper. And then we went off to our next destination, which was just a short ride. I think it was maybe a two hour ride to Elsie national park. And that Elsie national park is the, Mataranka township. And I'm sorry if I'm pronouncing any of these words. Am I turning to time township is famous for its thermal Springs. This was one where I couldn't book in advance. When we pass by. Any larger settlements, in order to territory, I would get gas and whenever I had cell phone service, I would try to call to plan where we're going to stay the next night. So that's what we did. Halfway before getting there, I called and contacted bitter Springs, cabins and camping and ask them if they had any availability. This turns out to be a very large caravan park right within walking distance to better Springs. I found them through the lonely planet guidebook for Australia, you could try to pick up a guidebook, we couldn't find it locally. The free local printed guide book for this area, the Northern territory. I bought the lonely planet. Australia guidebook, in my Kindle and downloaded it. I was able to refer to some of the places that were listed. So bitter Springs, cabins, and camping, I said, I would like to have a hookup spot. And, we're maybe about an hour, hour and a half away. and they said that they probably will have something. So we made sure to drive straight there without stopping anywhere along the way. And we got there and they did have a spot for us. So we got introduced to her spot. Probably not my favorite site, this is a privately owned campground. It was a large caravan park. You feel like you're part like sardines. But. It had really clean showers and bathrooms. And it had a perfect location. It was maybe a 15 minute walk to the Thermo Springs, but our Springs. It's basically located right next to LC national park. It was beautiful. It was lined by Palm trees and the Springs, were really, really warm. It was such a comfortable swim. The one thing that, I wish I knew was to bring more pool noodles, because in the thermal Springs, you can easily touch the bottom. And my kids are getting better at swimming, but they're not really strong swimmer. So it was much better for them to hold on to the pool noodle. The whole time we only had two pool noodles, so we had to take turns, sharing them. It was a really relaxing place. And the thermal Springs, I don't know exactly how warm it was, but it was at least 90 degrees. The next day we went off to our next location. We had decided to stay at bitter Springs just so we could rest a little bit, but it was going to be a long drive to our next location. Which is called Carlos in English, it's called devil's marbles. this Campground, I booked ahead of time on the website back when I was in Darwin. This is a phenomenal landscape. In fact, driving from Elsie national park to Carlo Carlo. That seven hour drive was just a phenomenal drive through the Northern territory, you really get a sense of, I'm really in the middle of nowhere. Whenever I saw a gas station and made sure that to fill up, even if I had, only use a quarter of the tank just in case. At some of the gas stations in the smaller towns, even if they were listed as having gas stations, they may not actually be open. So I didn't want to take my chance and I'm just filled up at every opportunity I could. It was hopeful to download. An offline version of Google maps for the area and, the RV that I rented also had an offline version of the map, that also showed what the next gas station was located. We arrived in Carlo Carlo and it was after dark. But the moon was out and it was just, really nice. This is a national park campground. There was no hookup. I don't even think that, that there wasn't water. I'm not sure. There was, just camping bathrooms. There was really minimal support. This is an example of You know, if we didn't have an RV, it would have much more difficult to live here with a family, but the national park campsites tended to be a little bit more spread out. And the location was just unbeatable. And really just for being able to go there was worth doing our motor home trip. We wouldn't have easily been able to. To go hike there. The next morning we woke up to this absolute beautiful desert landscape. The devil's marbles referred to these rocks, that are all over the closest I can think of. As the equivalent in the us would be a place like arches national park. But instead of arches, you have big boulders. the red is this very, very vivid red and the blue. The desert blue sky, and that blazing desert sun. It was so refreshing. There are certain parts of this area where they don't allow photography because it was considered a sacred to the Aboriginal Australians. I can see why they think this land is sacred. Is it just the beauty? There are certain parts that are beautiful and magical and awe inspiring. So we hiked around, we did a few loops. We did some short Heights around this time. We made sure to try to bring enough water. After the morning. We started heading to our next destination in the afternoon. Our next stop was Alice Springs, which is where we're going to fly out. And it was about a four hour drive from devil's marbles to Alice Springs. And I had not figured out where to camp yet. It was also another phenomenal drive to Alice Springs. Alice Springs is a lovely city. I wish we had more time in the RV. With our motor home and could spend more time there. It's not as hot as Darwin, cause it's a little bit further south. Further away from the equator, but it's still nice and warm. And the sun is still that desert pleasing sun. The rocks are red. The soil is still red. The first place that we stopped at was the Telegraph station, the historical reserve. It was a little veer off downtown Alice Springs. It was really a beautiful, beautiful area. I saw some people jogging there. I would've loved to have gone for a run in that area. so I made some phone calls and found a caravan park in west McDonald national park, which is a short drive from Alice Springs. At the temple bar caravan park. And this was a very laid back park. The people there were really nice. And the thing that I got a kick out of was that they didn't even accept credit cards. They took cash only. In fact they were going to close on, but because I call them. And told them that we were coming, they actually waited for us. This was unlike the other caravan park. This caravan park was really spread out. We ended up having two nights in a row of no electric hookup, but or motor home battery was fine contrary to their warning. This really, really peaceful area up in the west McDonald mountain range. The thing that struck me was, we park the motor home and the first thing that I see are big flock of pink parrots. And this is where, you know, sometimes I look around and I'm like, oh, maybe I'm in Utah or maybe I'm in Arizona, I'm out in the American west. I look at the birds, I look at the animals and I remind myself, oh no, no, you were. The other side of the world. I wish our time in Alice Springs was longer, but really we just, we have less than 18 hours. The next morning. We did a quick breakfast and we headed out to the west McDonald national part, to this area called Simpsons gap. if You go to Alice Springs, I highly recommend going to this, there's west McDonald national park and there's east McDonald national park. West McDonald national park or red was a little bit less crowded, whereas east MacDonald national park, also has some beautiful sites and we didn't have a chance to go there, but it has more crowds. From Alice Springs. It's a 20 minute drive to Westmaid Donald national park. If you go there at Dawn or dusk, you might see some wallabies. There's a short walk and a long walk. The short walk. As this really quick. Beautiful. Hike, suitable for all three generations. the symptoms gap is one of the most prominent gaps in the west MacDonald mountain ranges. It has a Creek running through it. So you see the red, the big red mountain with a Creek running through it and you're walking right in the middle of it. And it just really are inspiring, you know, everybody, everybody loved it and this was. Our final hike in the Northern territory. While we were driving back to the airport we were still out in. The national part. I saw a road sign. And at first I thought, oh, here's graffiti. And it was so interesting because it was showing the names of the destinations. On the left, you're going to Alice Springs and on the right, you're going to Herman bird. And somebody had crossed it out with this spray paint and put in the Aboriginal names. Alice Springs is part two And Hermannsburg was Harvey and I'm probably mispronouncing it. When I looked at the sign, I noticed that actually, throughout guidebooks, throughout all of Australia, but especially prominent in the northern territory. They are slowly moving towards adding the indigenous, names of each location. You know, like devils marbles. Now it goes by Carlo Carlo, same with, frazier island off of. The coast of Queensland now also goes by. I thought it was really cool to see signs of the indigenous people are reclaiming some of the culture and reclaiming the names of places that are the original names of these places. That really struck me and it was really inspirational. Unfortunately our time in Alice Springs had to quickly come to an end. There are many sites in the Northern territory that I wish I had time to visit. The one that I should mention is Ulu also known as Ayers rock. Um, it's a large sandstone formation in the center of Australia. it's world famous. Is just this really spectacular geologic formation. Um, and it's a sight to be hold. And, It's listed in the UNESCO world heritage site. it's about a four-hour drive from Alice Springs to the east. I just couldn't figure out how to fit it in, into our, itinerary, and so I hope that, if you go to the Northern territory, make sure you leave some time to check that out. So. Our time in Northern territory, sadly came to an end. We're there for probably six to seven days. From Alice Springs, we flew to Melbourne, which marks the last part of our Australia trip. thIs time we used Quantas airlines, we were trying to look for direct flights to Quantas airlines flew direct from Alice Springs to Melbourne. It was a fairly pricey flight, but I got it last minute. I think it would have been cheaper if I had booked it earlier. When we got to Melbourne. We were greeted for the first time in Australia with this rainy, cloudy, gray skies. We were wearing, t-shirts and skirts and shorts. And so we immediately felt cold leaving the airport as we've gotten into our Uber. A word about, designing itinerary since I trip planned, our entire three weeks in Australia. By the time we wrapped up the motor home, Camping portion. I was pretty exhausted, happy, satisfied, fulfilled, but also exhausted. When somebody in Queensland warned me about driving in Melbourne, I thought, I don't think I need to rent a car in Melbourne. I've already rented a car and drove through a large part of Australia. So we did not rent a car. We just stayed in a downtown hotel. And actually that was a really nice hotel. One of the cheapest hotels that we stayed at. The mantra south bank, Melbourne hotel. It's part of the, uh, core. I live limitless portfolio. In south bank, which is a nice part of Melbourne. It's not the busiest part of Melbourne, we were just only staying for two nights. and we had already booked a tour, so it was, about 270 Australian dollars for a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment. And the living room had a queen sofa bed. So it was a very comfortable stay for all of us. One Australian dollar resort. At 69 cents us. One of the things that other Australians more than me about Melbourne is they have these hook turns. Also known as a two-stage turn. And the way that it works is if you make a right. Remember when you're driving on the left side of the road, making a left turn is the easier turn to me. So when you're making a right turn, there's. Oncoming traffic. But in Melbourne, there's also trams and you don't want to get in the way of the trans. So you start to turn, for the first stage, which. Puts you right in the middle of the intersection. And then when it's clear to go, you go through the intersection. I'm sure if I had more time and bandwidth, I would have been able to learn it. Just buying. But, it worked out really nicely when we got to Melbourne. Um, I just found a all day tour. For us to go because where I wanted to go was Phillip island. I don't know if this is widespread knowledge. I certainly didn't know this, but there are penguins that are endemic to Australia. So they are called little penguins, also known as fairy penguins or little blue penguins. They were the smallest penguins in the world. But there were penguins, nevertheless. And so on a daily basis, they go from the ocean back to their nest at dusk. And on Philip island. Which is in Victoria, the state where Melbourne is located. Phillip island is I think, two hours or so outside of Melbourne. So I could have just rented a car and driven us there, it would have been a little bit stressful, the next day we had to make a flight. So instead we booked a tour. And the tour, picked us up in a small shuttle bus. It was bigger than the van, but not one of those big tour buses. That seated, maybe 20, some people. We got picked up maybe around 10:00 AM in the morning, and then we got dropped off close to nine or 10:00 PM at night. So it was a good 12 hours. This is usually how I go about finding tours. I first take a peek at trip advisor to see what choices are out there. And trip advisor is helpful because it shows the rankings and reviews of people that have participated. So that gives me an idea of what's available. And then if I can figure it out, I will try to directly book the trip. I will try to. Find the name of the company that is actually holding the tour locally. And I will try to book directly through them. Usually. You could get the price for cheaper or get a better tour or get more perks thrown in. In the case of the tour that I've found. The local company is called explore Australia. And, their website had all the different tours, including other tours around Victoria. the one that most people will pick is just the Phillip island tour. It usually includes, stopping by a wildlife sanctuary where you could look at, Qualice. But we had already done that in Queensland, and since in Victoria, in the state of Victoria, they do not allow you to hold and hug the Qualice. We skip that option and I found this other tour. they picked us up from south bank. In Melbourne and they drove us out of the city, which is great. Cause there was a, quite a bit of traffic. Then they dropped us off at the ferry. And we boarded the ferry to go to French island, which I have not heard of, but it is an island that has the densest population of Qualice. Qualities were introduced to this island. I think a few decades ago. Because it's an island, there are no foxes. There are no natural predators. So the wildlife there is protected. The Kuala population blossomed on this island. and in fact, they are so populated. They actually have to start giving the quality birth control. To as part of population control. But it is. The best place to see qualities in the wild, even though Kuala is, we're not endemic there. The places were qual as are endemic, like in the Australian Bush, it's becoming harder and harder to see them. So if you just want to hang out. And then island drive around and have a good chance of spotting. Kuala is on a eucalyptus tree. French island is the place to go. So most of the French island is actually a national part. And the cool thing about this tour is, we board the ferry, we arrive in French island and then a retired park ranger picks us up. And he picks us up in this large four by four vehicle called OCA. Okay. It's a vehicle that was made, especially for tourists traveling in Western Australia. So you drive around these dirt roads around the island. And the first step that we make is actually for uh, privately cook lunch in this family's home. Um, and so we got to meet a local family that lives on French island. There's not a lot of people that live in front island. She cooked us this really nice dinner, tell it to our dietary restrictions. And then after we filled up on this really nice, homemade lunch, we were surprised by some key cops in her yard. Um, she had this really beautiful property. It turns out that some people brought peacocks on the island a few decades ago. And now their wild flocks of peacocks around the island. so the later part of our time on French island, we drove around on this OCA on this four by four large vehicle. And looked at the scenery, looked at look for qualities. There were different birds. There was the black Swan. We spotted three different qualities. One that had, uh, one was a mom with a baby. And that was so much fun. To see the quality was just such a nice bonus. I was not even expecting to see them in the wild. I had just learned about this tour days before. And, unlike Philip island, which is pretty touristy because, everybody wants to see the little penguins. The tour for French island. as far as I could tell was only done by this one company, explore Australia and most of the people who went with this tour company didn't even go with this tour. So it was a little bit off the beaten path. It was basically, my families are our party of six plus. Plus one other, a solo traveler. I highly recommend adding French island. It was great. It was really wonderful. Really kid friendly, too. Okay. So after, our, quick stop at French island for lunch and Kuala and bird spotting, we went back on the ferry and the ferry took us directly to phillip island. And so when we arrived in Phillip island, the shuttle bus and the tour guide met us there to pick us up. And we'll get back on the shuttle bus. And we went straight to a place called the Nabis, it's a boardwalk and you get this beautiful view of the dramatic seep. Laughs. You get these panoramic ocean views, you see a lot of birds and you see from a distance You have to bring your binoculars or a zoom lens to see the seal colony is just this really beautiful area. And there are, also penguin NES. If you get really lucky, you might see the little penguins there, we didn't see any, but we did see the NES. And so you took a walk on this boardwalk and the knobbies and then the next stop They drove us to where the penguin parade is. It's a natural phenomena. Seeing the penguins go from the sea because they were fishing in the sea. And then they returned to their nest at dusk. And so it's penguins in their natural habitat. But, the infrastructure has been built around it. So there is actually the stadium, there is these boardwalks. You can, sit in the stadium while waiting for the penguins to come back. To the beach and then, once you start seeing the first penguins go, you leave the stadium and then you stand on the boardwalk and from, the boardwalk, you can see them really close up, walking back to their nest. So at first it was a little anticlimactic because you sit in the stadium and you're kind of far from where the penguins walk. I couldn't even see them walk because it's getting dark and you can really see that from afar, but once everybody, once the crowd started walking towards the boardwalk, you go on the boardwalk and then you can see really these penguins walk. Walk back to their nest close up. They're really, really cute. They're waddling. There's a big group of them. They count them every night. How many penguins at the penguin parade? wow. So it's usually 3000 to 5,000 birds that are marching back. So the one thing that we didn't know ahead of time. Was that when you go, they don't want you to use your camera because of the artificial light and that kid. confuse, especially like if someone were to use their flash that could confuse the penguins. They're pretty strict about that. You basically can not use your camera at all. There were definitely people who are there that were sneaking in pictures and videos. But I did not get any pictures or videos after they told us to put our phones away. What I would have liked to change about it is to make it a little bit less touristy, but because of, where Philip island is located really close to Melbourne, it's hard to make it less touristy. Because it is easily accessible, it was definitely worth it. I would do it again. But just remember Melbourne in August is quite cold. We basically put on every. Single layer that we brought to Australia. And we didn't bring umbrellas would probably would have been helpful to do that. Cause it was raining at times and we were just hoping that, it didn't rain too hard so that we didn't get too wet. Because the stadium and the parade is all outdoors. So that wraps up. So that was our last day in Australia., if you are really into penguins, there are other places to see penguins in Australia. Tasmania is another place to see them and Because it's much harder to get to Tasmania. I've heard that experience as more touristy and more intimate. At least from a traveler that I spoke to, they were allowed to take pictures and videos with their camera. They just couldn't use the flash. So they were less strict with the photograph policy. But either way. It was really delightful. And our last day in Australia, on French and Philip island. Overwhelmingly exceeded expectations. It was a phenomenal day and I would do it exactly the same way I would go with the same tour company. And I'm really glad that I didn't try to drive on the last day. It was a stress free experience. I was able to take a little nap. On our hour and a half drive back to Melbourne. So that wraps up part two of our Australia itinerary. We just had a phenomenal three weeks there and I am so glad we did this. Australia is really a phenomenal country, a phenomenal continent. And I hope these two episodes inspire you and that you go clear off your calendar and go book that trip to the amazing, beautiful country of Australia. So even though I spent two episodes talking about art, Australia, itinerary, there was so much more that we can talk about. And in the next episode, I am going to be bringing a doctor who spent even more time than we did. She spent six weeks in Australia. Most of that time in Western Australia. Which is an amazing part of the country. So stay tuned for the next episode