I decided after 10 years of consulting, In needed a little break, so I took the summer off to go on "Walkabout".  I arrived in Australia on June 17th, 2004 after a two week stay in New Zealand.  This was truly the trip of a lifetime!

Olympic Stadium

Albino Kangaroos.  VERY rare

He is so fuzzy.  This adult Koala was my friend for 5 whole minutes.

This little joey is so playful.   I was able to hold and feed these babies

This guy just wanted to go back to bed

This is a distance shot of the 3 sisters in the Blue mountains

Arial view of Sydney from the AMP tower 250 meters up

Arial view of the harbor. 

The Sydney aquarium is likely the best in the world I was in AWE.  This guy is in the seahorse family and is a Sea Dragon

This is Sydney from across the harbor at the zoo.   What a view

The Sydney harbor bridge.  They actually let people (for a lot of money) walk over the arch of the bridge

The luxurious residential town of Surfers Paradise in the Gold Coast

Brisbane skyline.  Very nice city

UGLY BAD WICKED camper! NEVER RENT!

Hamilton Island resort in the Whitsunday islands

Hamilton Is. has no cars.  Just golf cars

The hotel I stayed in on the resort

A local "keet" saying hello at lunch

Me at pebble beach on Hamilton Is. 

This man Gawbi, made The Dijeridoo I brought back

This is Lake Argyle in the Kimberly region in the Northeast corner of Western Australia.  I spent 3 days touring this area by 4wd, single engine plane flights, boat cruises and by foot.  There is so much here.  

This earth made (no concrete) damn holds back the entire lake to a depth of over 100 feet.  

The Bungle Bungles is a rock feature of the Kimberly that is basically only accessible by small plane or helicopter.  I flew in and toured around on foot.  This is a dried up flood way, which during wet season isn't even accessible.

Each of the termite hills point in the same direction and give the feeling of a grave yard.  These are Spinifex termites that actually eat spinifex grass and excrete a concrete like substance to create the structures.

This Boab tree is just another example of strange evolution. The fat trunks can be many meters around, although the trees only reach about 10-15 meters tall.  

This series of falls was one of the many permanent water holes our tour was able to swim in.  This is Wengi falls in the Northern territory.

On the return flight from the Bungle Bungles, we had a great view of the Argyle diamond mine.  Only opened in 1973, it is now by far, the worlds largest producer of diamonds.  

Olympic park

This is an echidna indigenous only to Australia

I didn't touch this wombat!

This grey roo is SOO soft.  He's even softer than the Koala below.

Ready, Aim, don't Jump!

The blue mountains.  Appear blue in the distance because of oils expelled from the Eucalyptus trees that tints the air.  Very cool effect if you are there in person.

Goomblar.  Made me this boomerang, and showed me the ways of the Aborigines

The AMP tower and the Sydney monorail. (I feel like I'm in a Simpson's episode)

Even a solar powered sail boat!

They have funny ways of getting around down under.

This is a Holden (aka General Motors)

I think this needs no explanation.  Hard to imagine it's been  around almost as long as I have!

Dad this is for you.  A 4 foot long PACU. The dark shadow at the bottom is my foot. They are illegal to have as pets in Australia because they grow out of control in the sewer and streams.

These are Sea Apples among others. Very colorful.   This was a touch tank at an aquarium North of Brisbane

The beach at Gold Coast.

The "Tower of Terror" at Dreamland.  I don't know how they can use that name (already used by Disney) but it was a lot of fun to get shot up and down this 120 meter tower

They looked like pet Tigers at Dreamland

I thought this was fun.  The Aussi wee-wee dance.

Any?

Same with this Cockatoo.  He was trying to eat my lunch

Cairns Esplanade.  They made an artificial beach for when the tide pulls the real one away

This is also Lake Argyle.  It's massive.  One of the worlds largest completely man-made lakes, and the largest body of fresh water in Australia.  It was made by placing a small dam (shown to the left) along the Ord river.  

When flying to the Bungle Bungle region, the pilot gave us this bird-eye view of plate-tectonics at work.  Here you can see 3 cascading layers being pushed over each other.  This was once ocean.

This 8 foot high monolith is actually a healthy termite hill.  It's hard as concrete.  This is actually called a magnetic formation because ALL of them point straight North. 

This is another type of termite hill called a cathedral formation.  This one is 5 meters tall, but some are over 7 meters (22 feet).  It's 150 years old!

This face formation is easy to spot in the Bungle Bungles.

This is a good example of the layered features of the Bungle Bungles.  The rock has hundreds of alternating layers of orange and black stripes, cause by the weathering from the nearby dessert.  Orange is iron oxide and black is dead bacteria that attached to the softer more porous layers.

This is a very cute adolescent rock wallaby.  I wanted to take him home, but it was a national park, and I'm told, you're just not allowed to do that. :)