Today is Monday, August 19, the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the first day back of our truly amazing sojourn Down Under for the last 15 days, along with our Arizona cousin, “Joan.” There were so many memories created on this once-in-a-lifetime trip that I can’t begin to enumerate all of them here. We tried to cram all of Australia into the two weeks we had to roam about this vast continent. We succeeded in seeing the urban as well as the not-so-urban areas of the country, including the vast Outback for a three-day camping tour of Uluru, or Ayers Rock, which is a massive sandstone monolith in the heart of the Northern Territory’s and “Red Centre” of the country. This site is considered sacred to indigenous Australians and is thought to have started forming around 550 million years ago.

We started this amazing journey by spending the first four days in Sydney. Here we took a one-hour tour of the iconic Sydney Opera House on Wednesday, August 7. We toured various neighborhoods, notably the “Rocks.” This is a historic neighborhood of old laneways directly in the shadow of Sydney Harbour Bridge. The area has some of Sydney’s oldest pubs, and many of the upscale restaurants have harbor views. The Rocks got its name, I learned, after the rocky peninsula on the western side of the cove where convicts and their guards first stepped ashore and made camp. This place is considered the birthplace of modern Sydney. With the arrival of European settlers in 1788, it was here that the convicts first set up house and shop. So it was incumbent that we would all find ourselves walking down the streets here.

After our four-day stay near Sydney’s Chinatown at the Ace Hotel, we made our next stop in Alice Springs where we stayed at the Mercure Alice Springs Resort before embarking on the wildest three-day exploration of the Red Centre, the country’s interior desert region. On this three-day camping adventure with 18 other robust travelers, we pitched in to make our own dinner, gathered firewood for the fire, slept in broken sleeping bags (at least I did on the first night), used our iPhone’s flashlight to walk to the nearest shower and bathroom facilities (on the first night, I didn’t go out too late for fear of getting lost in the dark), and drove many, many miles to sites like Ayers Rock, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, and Kings Canyon, of which I took part in a three-hour hike of the Canyon with other members of the group, while Elliot was accidentally locked in our road vehicle for the duration of the hike. Don’t ask how this happened, but it did. Thank God Elliot didn’t need to exit the vehicle before someone came by to open the door. At the end of this outdoor adventure, our cousin told us that it was intended for Level 3 hikers. No wonder we ended up, for the most part, literally sitting on the bus. I was proud, though, of being able to do the circuit of the Canyon all by myself without falling over the cliff – or even slipping on the uneven steps within the site. This will be my triumphant moment of this trip!

Our last stop was Cairns (pronounced “Cans,” not “Carns,” in case you’re wondering), which is the gateway to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, and is a city in tropical Far North Queensland. We stayed on the ever-popular Esplanade, in a resort called Crystalbrook Riley. Elliot outdid himself this time by booking us at this lovely hotel, replete with pools (sadly, I never even used them in the several days we were there), several bars and restaurants, and even a terrace in our room (which we also had no time to use too). Here the temperature was always a balmy 80 degrees or so. The intent staying in this tropical town was to see the historic Great Barrier Reef (which Elliot and Joan did) on the second day we were here, while I took an abbreviated tour of the Reef on a glass-bottom boat, by taking a ferry to Green Island where I boarded my boat with other likeminded passengers. On the day after Elliot and Joan snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef, they participated in a tubing adventure down the Mulgrave River, while I took a more sedate trip on a cablecar over the rainforest, dropping off at Kuranda pronounced “Karaanda”), where I visited a koala sanctuary, and then topped it off by boarding a more-than-hundred-year-old train for a ride through the rain forest for a half hour.

During this wonderful trip, we took eight flights – traveling from Sydney to Alice Springs and back, and then traveling to Cairns and back. That’s a total of four flights taken domestically on Jetstar and Qantas. In addition, we have to add the flights from New York to Los Angeles, where we boarded our flight after a three-hour layover to our flight to Sydney. And we had to do this again on the way back as well. For a total of four flights. And I hate flying! I don’t know how I managed to do this, but I managed somehow.

Even the original 14-hour flight to Sydney didn’t seem all that bad since I watched, possibly, three or four films. I do recall watching one three-hour movie on the way to Sydney, 1964’s My Fair Lady starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. That took up some time. Only 11 hours to go! I slept but little, I believe. I packed Melatonin with me, but didn’t take the pill. The other films I watched I’ve forgotten already.

For our three-day walk in the woods, so to speak, we had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 4:45 a.m. over two days. I packed a change of clothes on the advice of Joan, who supplied us with packing cubes, but had no time to unpack the clothes since we couldn’t see anything in the tent after sundown. Thus I walked around in the same outfit for three days. No one noticed, I hope.

Anyway, that was our trip in a nutshell as much as I could recall. I know that some of you might not consider taking such a journey because of the long hours on a plane, but I feel it’s certainly worth it. When we arrived in Sydney, we did what all the experts have advised: we didn’t take naps; we checked into our hotel room and immediately took to the streets. By doing this, we didn’t suffer from jet lag. And I’m waiting for it to overtake me now; it’s 11 here. So far, so good. Last night, I went to bed a little earlier than usual: 1 a.m.

So for your pleasure, I will post some choice pictures of our Australian adventure below.

Oh, to inject a little politics into our awesome trip, not one Aussie I talked to endorsed America’s “nightmare,” Donald Duck; they couldn’t understand to a one how we managed to get into this mess with him! Unfortunately, I couldn’t give them a rational explanation for this aberration.

Stay safe and be well.

There it is: Sydney’s iconic Opera House.

Sydney’s Harbour Bridge.

These were the only kangaroos we saw during our trip in Australia – at the Taronga Zoo.

More kangaroos.

I think this is a sitting emu.

Here is a half-hidden koala in a tree at the Taronga Zoo.

This is a Tasmanian devil.

This is on the road through the Outback.

This is the historic Ayers Rock.

Sundown in the Outback.

This is where I took that 3-hour hike through Kings Canyon. I walked up steps, walked down steps, crossed rivers, and walked over walkways.

Some of the fish I saw from my glass-bottom boat.

This koala you can see and he was at that sanctuary in Karunda.

One of the falls I could see from my train window on that railroad trip through the rain forest.

This is the view from my window of the cable car.