Articles by lemaire

Today we left our hotel at 6:15 a.m. after a breakfast at McDonald’s next to our hotel. We took our plane at 10:00 a.m. on 8/23 and landed in Los Angeles at 6:40 a.m. on the same day after spending 13 hours 30 in the airplane.

We had almost 3 hours to go through customs and immigration, and change terminal. We almost did not make it because of the state of confusion at  the check-in of Continental Airlines.  I am sure that this caused the airline to forget about one of my carry-on-luggage in Los Angeles. I received it yesterday.

We returned to Rowan on time before 6:30 p.m.

Today we left Ayers Rock after a breakfast including ham and cheese omelet, vegetable omelet, yogurts, fruit, French toasts, various jams, Nutella, peanut butter, and regular toasts. The variety of breakfast items presented to my participants did not prevent one of them to complain about her choices! Can’t make everyone happy, I guess!

We went to Ayers Rock for sunrise and visited the Aboriginal Center after breakfast. We then went to the airport for our flight back to Sydney. After a good flight, we went to dinner at the Southern Cross Restaurant where we celebrated the success of our trip. Each participant received a little gift that I had purchased during our visits in Australia.

Jamie Patterson, our dedicated driver, received a pair of Australian opal earrings.

Tomorrow we are going home!

Dr. L.

Today we drove from Mt Ebenezer to Ayers Rock and first went to the Olga’s, a group of rocks located about 45 km from Ayers Rock. We had a nice picnic followed by a hike among these rocks.

We went to Ayers Rock to observe the sunset and had a great dinner during which we all cooked our meals on BBQ.  Salads, potatoes, and desserts were provided.

After dinner a musician entertained us and participants danced until late.

Dr. L.

Today we left around 8:15 a.m. to go visit Kings Canyon and then come back to our hotel in Mt Ebenezer.

The first thing that did not go well today was the fact that we were told that the pump of unleaded fuel was empty. This forced us to access the next gas station 65 miles from the hotel and then back track to get to Kings Canyon where we refueled again to make sure we would have enough gas to go to Ayers Rock tomorrow.

Besides the 130 miles detour, it cost us 2 hours. Arriving in Kings Canyon we immediately organized the picnic lunch. We were asked to either pay $70 dollars to use their picnic table or leave. We left and found another table at the gas station for free.

As we were leaving to go hike the famous canyon, Jamie’s van discovered that they had a flat tire. Finding the jack was what took the longest time since the owner’s manual listed the jack under the passenger’s seat when it is actually under the driver’s seat. When the tire was fixed, we realized that we could not do the whole hike because we would get back to our hotel when the restaurant would be close! (They open between 6 and 7 p.m.) Everything worked well since we decided to do a third of the hike and back track.

We got back to our hotel at 5:35 and had dinner at 6:00 p.m.

Everything is going well down under!

Breakfast was early at the lodge and it was great to wake up to refreshing cold air and giant red plateaus. We went out for Alice Springs School of the Air, surprised to find out it had no relation to airplane/pilot training.

The School of the Air is Australia’s way of educating children in the outback, or “the bush”.

Since most densely populated coastal cities have schools, they are exempt from needing the School of the Air. Anyone who lives anywhere in the middle of the country or bush, can be a part of the network of a school. We were able to watch a live broadcast of a teacher to her students, and later an “assembly” that was broadcasted interactively to the kids. The tour was extremely informative, heart warming, and inspiring.

After that, we were on to bigger and better things: camels!

Everyone got to ride a camel through the desert, learning how to “steer” and “control” the camel. We learned that camels groan, and sound exactly lide screaming dinosaurs.

To finish we drove down a beautiful red dirt road to Henbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve to observe a giant crater in the middle of the outback that was created when about 4,000 years ago meteorites fell in the area and formed 12 craters.

We finally continued our drive to Mt Ebenezer Motel, were we had dinner and slept peacefully.

Here is the brief list of what we did yesterday:

Visit of the high school in Tennant Creek

Tropic  of  Capricorn

Visit of the Royal Flying Doctor in Alice Springs

Show of reptile and Australian country music

1 hour of shopping in Alice Springs

Everything is going well besides the Internet.

Your children post will be inserted tonight.

Today we began our long trip to Tennant Creek heading south in the Northern Territory. On our way we stopped at the Mataranka Thermal Pools. The thermal pools formed from a hot spring. Many people stop along the way to swim in the hot spring water that reached 86 degrees. The whole group enjoyed swimming in the thermal pools allowing us to relax before continuing our journey.

Before jumping back in the van we stopped to feed a baby wallaby named Lucky who was being raised after his mother was hit by a car. We also fed a kid or baby goat named Chops or Cassie for casserole, she could not decide on a name. We drove for some time  until our next stop in Daly Waters for lunch.

We learned that Daly Waters as well as Darwing was a place during WWII that Allied soldiers were able to stop and get some R & R. We visited the historic pub where the walls are covered in belongings of those who have crossed its path and wished to leave their mark. A group three years ago left a Rowan University Discovers Australia shirt behind but we couldn’t find it.

After a long day of driving we arrived at the Caravan park in Tennant Creek and had dinner at the Memorial Club, the only place in town to enjoy a home cooked meal.

Amanda and Tara

Kyle and Laura

Today we went to the Katherine George.  We took a cruise down the river and had the opportunity to walk around and appreciate the scenery.  We got to see a freshwater croc, which was smaller and less aggressive than the salties we saw on the yellow river cruise.  We ate dinner at the River Lodge Restaurant .

Today we had a delicious homemade breakfast and set out bright and early for the Kakadu National Park. Once we arrived at Nourlangie Rock, we saw immense rock structures decorated with Aboriginal artwork from thousands years ago. We got a quick snake bite lesson from Dr. L. then set out on a short hike. We were able to stop to hear a tour guide explain some of the aboriginal culture, concerning marriage, totems, and sacred measures which “prevented earthquakes”.

The view at the top of the rock was incredible and words cannot describe how beautiful the surrounding landscape was. We also got to see a wild olive python which Jamie chased off of the road with a giant three branch. We then continued driving to Katherine and ate dinner at the adjoined restaurant.

Kelsey

Your children had fun in Darwin last night, and today, we had breakfast at Salvatore’s Cafe eating Viennese toasted bread, eggs, bacon, croissants, fresh fruit salad, muesli or muffins.

We then headed east toward Kakadu National Park, famous for its many crocodiles and birds. We stopped at Fog Dam an area of wetlands located half way between Darwin and the park. We had a picnic at the Kakadu Visitor Center.

We got to our hotel by 1:30 p.m. and your children are swimming in one of the two swimming pools. At 4:30 p.m. we will enjoy our 4th cruise of the trip on the Yellow River for 2 hours.

I have reserve a table for our dinner and we will enjoy live music tonight under the stars.

I suspect that we won’t have Internet connection tomorrow… therefore do not worry, everything is going well down under.

Dr. L.

Brielle and Lindsey

We started out the day with breakfast at the Salvatore café in Darwin.  Then we took off for a drive to Kakadu.  We stopped at the Kakadu National Park for a quick exhibit of animals and the Aboriginal culture.   Some displays had Aboriginal poetry on them.  Then we had a nice picnic lunch.

We did a little more driving to our hotel, the Gagudju Loodge Cooinda.  The hotel was a simple, but clean campground.  There was big beautiful pool where the majority of us spent the afternoon.  We then went on a cruise on the Yellow River.  The cruise was amazing; we saw over 20 crocodiles, a few different species of birds, and even a buffalo.  We learned many facts about these animals.

When we were done with the cruise, we had dinner back at the hotel.  Some people even tried eating kangaroo.  There was a musician playing popular songs while we at and Laura was invited up to sing with him.  Overall, we had a great day!