It’s quite a journey from the U.S. to get to Fremantle in Western Australia but worth the trip. Actually Fremantle was one of the highlights as was the stay south of there in Olio Bello. There were several highlights, most of all on land but a few on the ship as we traveled from Fremantle to Darwin, stopping several places to snorkel, going by helicopter to see the non-existent Mitchell falls, flying to the Bungle Bungles for over an hour to circle around some hills and return. Some of the landscape reminded me of Algeria…which you can read about in another post.

Then once in Darwin, taking the Ghan train from Darwin to Adelaide stopping in Alice Springs to fly over to Uluru, visiting Coober Pedy (a place I just had to see!)

Then over to Melbourne where the major highlight was seeing my Friends Lynn and Dave and…having a platypus experience!! (So amazing and unexpectedly joyful!)

We enjoyed quite a bit of wine tasting prior to getting on our ship:

We also met up with some favorite animals along the way both on land and sea and in captivity:

And I couldn’t resist adding these pictures of me and my brother Patrick visiting Australia in 1990.

Here’s a slide show of the highlights (and lowlights) of our adventure in Australia, 2023:

A mix of parks and peeps and passage along our month-long adventure in Australia.

Above: Uluru from the backside…it’s enormous and not just the backside. Pretty fantastic and well worth a journey just for this.

Below: Canyons and Cliffs – some of the side trips that were available from the Ghan train “tour”

Headed over to Coober Pedy from the Ghan train to search for Opals and satisfy one of the places on my bucket list. Needless to say, it was a bit underwhelming. And I should have bought some earrings, as shortly after that I lost one of mine that I have had for years. Oh well, next time.

The underground church in Coober Pedy…pretty spectacular actually

Back on the train and traveling through some pretty desolate land in the outback.

The following slide show is what you get traveling in the outback via the Ghan train…pretty stark.

Healesville Sanctuary – An hour from Melbourne…not to be missed