Mark's Anaconda Adventure

No, not the same anaconda adventure that Mark embarked on two years ago in Trinidad. This one did not include a big snake but only required a 1.9km swim with a 500m run following, a 13km sea kayak, an 11.2km trail run and rock scramble, a 23km mountain bike, and ended with a 2.8km beach run. The Anaconda Adventure Race took place in Lorne on the Great Ocean Road this past Sunday.

Those of you that know me well understand how I feel about my husband. His determination and dedication to his career, me (and Cash), and his extracurricular athletic activities are steadfast and just one line on a list of many reasons that I love him. I was so very proud of him on Sunday as he finished the race (believe me, there are many that do not) as a single (a lot of the other competitors did the race in a relay) and looked really good doing it!

Another check on the list

Mark's dad, Tim, and his friend, Sharon, visited us in Australia last week providing a good excuse to cross something off our list of things to see.

We drove about seven hours across the border into New South Wales and into the Snowy Mountains with the goal of climbing the highest peak in Australia - Mt. Kosciuszko, at a mere 7,310 feet. Mountaineers, wishing to complete the Seven Summits challenge, debate whether to tackle the 2.5 hour walk to the top of Kosciuszko or to rock climb their way 16,024 feet up Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia. We chose the former to complement Mark's Kilimanjaro summit, our joint Mt. Elbrus summit, and our hearty try at Aconcagua.

Yes, we did celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia.

And, yes, I am almost three weeks late in telling you about it.

Although Thanksgiving is purely an American tradition, we did have a "Mark and Julie" Thanksgiving, complete with turkey, cornbread stuffing, and pecan pie on Thanksgiving Thursday (even though it was really still Wednesday back in the U.S.).

Cash eyeing the turkey.

We were also fortunate enough to have some Australian friends with a high level of interest in the holiday. They were so interested that they invited us, and a few of their other friends, over for a Thanksgiving dinner on that Saturday night. The stipulation was that I bring some common Thanksgiving side dishes and pumpkin pie.

The thing you have to understand about Australians is that they will eat pumpkin in just about every savory dish..... pumpkin foccacia, pumpkin with pasta, pumpkin lasagna.....and the list goes on. So, the idea that we eat pumpkin as a dessert is very welcomed. Needless to say, there was no canned pumpkin here, so I made the entire thing from scratch. Looking back it may have not been the best pumpkin pie I have had, but how would they know the difference?

Another Day at the Races

Dori and me at our marquee and me with a band riding stuffed horses.

Mark and I met a Scot by the name of Dori at our recent sailing lesson in Melbourne. Dori is quite a character and was kind enough to ask me to join her at Oaks Day, one of the races in Melbourne during the Spring Racing Carnival.

Fairly enough I have never been to the Kentucky Derby, but I would have to conjecture that this event is as big if not bigger than the annual, U.S. race. I truly thought I would be over dressed. Once there I realized that most of the ladies' hats probably were more expensive than my entire outfit!

A few things I realized/learned at the Oaks Day race:

1. I really like sparkling wine/champagne, as if I didn't know that already.

2. Our new friend, Dori, is the niece of Deborah Kerr (of An Affair to Remember and The King and I).

3. One of Dori's friends, Rhonda, has a son that has spent the last six weeks in L.A. recording an album. His band's name is Sky Bomber, and here is their MySpace page. There are a lot of Australian artists in this country of 20 million that you have never heard of and never will. So this is quite a big deal when a band is invited to record in L.A. I really enjoyed their music when I listened to it the other night!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=60195335

4. I am not a champion horse gambler or punter, as they call it here. I ended the day $23 down, a win by comparison!

We are still here....

A great amount of time has elapsed since we last checked in. It is not due to our lethargy or unwillingness to keep in touch. We simply wanted to get our past month and a half of adventures to you at once (and the pictures have just been uploaded to the computer tonight).

Out of a tad bit of indolence, I will just bring you up to speed quickly:

* I (Julie) made the trip back to Atlanta in late September for Jennifer Morris's (now Ferguson) wedding in Charleston but did a quick fly-by to Napa to meet my friends, Carrie and Kristi. The entire two weeks was a world wind of activity, but it was wonderful to see friends and family that I had not seen in about seven months.

(LtoR): Kristi, Carrie, and me at Darioush Winery in Napa (We really liked their 2004 Signature Cabernet. However, the best wine we had all weekend was a 1988 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars SLV Cab); Jessica's baby shower at my house (Jess and her partner, John, now have a little boy named Jacob Thomas.); Jennifer and me right before the big moment (Doesn't she look great?)

* Spring marks a time of horses, hats, and hammered Australians. Melbourne has at least four, horse race days during Spring Carnival Race Week, but most of the rural towns in Victoria also have their own race days. Mark and I went to the Geelong Cup in late October, bet on several horses (mainly basing our picks on cool-sounding names), and lost pretty much all of them. "The Fuzz" had none of the buzz but took home the cake (and our money).

*This past year has been a terrific year for me. I have spent the latter part of 2006 and now almost 11 months of 2007 with the love of my life. October 28th marked our one-year anniversary. We are so fortunate to have spent most of our married life in Australia, so we commemorated our first year at the biggest Australian natural wonder - The Great Barrier Reef.

Northern Queensland is an amazing region of Australia - not only for the Reef, the largest living thing visible from Space, and the gorgeous scenery but also for the number of animals that could do a human great harm. When one hears of all the weird plants and animals in Australia, this is where most of them can be found. Estuarine Crocodile (have been found almost a hundred kilometers off the coast and even on the Reef), Box Jellyfish (one brush could kill a human if unlucky), and Cassowary birds (carry around a five-inch middle claw that has disemboweled humans in the past) are just a few of the creatures to name a few. Between Mark's mountain biking and sea kayaking and our joint trip to the Reef to snorkel, we were fortunate enough to not run into any of these animals.

Really beautiful, tropical, very humid place!

* On Mark's first stop in his around-the-world trip, I joined him in Sydney. Most Australians will tell you that Melbourne is the best state capital city due to its international population and quaint neighborhoods. However, most will also agree that Sydney is the most dramatic and beautiful city. Between the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House there is not a more appealing picture in Australia.

We had two great days in Sydney of watching the surfers and lunching at Manly Beach and running/swimming/walking at Bondi Beach. Mark and I also keep a mental note of the best meals we have eaten in the past year, and we have a new "Number 1" after our Saturday night in Sydney. Buon Ricordo is an excellent italian restaurant that serves one of the best dishes either of us have ever eaten - Fettucine al tartufovo. Parmesan cheese is grated onto your plate of fettucine at the table, followed by the waiter mixing the truffled egg (egg matured in an airtight box with truffles) into the dish. Only about 3,500 calories.

Baby Joey

This picture is from our trip with Paul and Cheryl to Phillip Island and was left out of the original post.

The little guy's mom was hit by a truck, and he is now being cared for at a wildlife reserve. He spends his naps in this pillow case with a clock to mimic his mom's pouch and finds comfort in sucking his toe. Isn't he a beauty?

Spring Has Sprung and The Wine Jug is Dun.....

* Shout out to the dogs we always meet along the way....Skye with Mark above at our B & B and Castro at a cafe.

Mark always says that if there is a renowned restaurant to be found in an area where we are traveling, I am bound to drag him to it. That is not to say that he does not enjoy it. I just absolutely relish any opportunity to have a good dining experience and a fabulous bottle of wine.

Enter the Barossa Valley in South Australia. Last weekend we spent a few days outside of Adelaide in this region that put Australia's wine export business on the map. Big Shiraz (you may know them as Syrah in the U.S.) and sweet Semillons are the way to go in the Barossa, and we drank our way through some of the best.

Here are a few that we brought home with us and suggest that you head to your wine store in the U.S. to do the same:
1. The Willows - The Bonesetter 2004 Shiraz, The Doctor Sparkling Shiraz
2. Kaesler - Old Bastard 2005 Shiraz, Old Vine 2005 Shiraz
3. Torbreck - Descendent 2005, The Factor 2005, The Steading 2005
4. Two Hands - Lily's Garden McLaren Vale Shiraz 2006, Bella's Garden Barossa Valley Shiraz 2006, Cane-cut Semillon 2006
* This is where the eating part comes into the story. We dined at Appellation Restaurant and chose a wine-matched tasting menu that only featured Two Hands Shiraz. My favorite course was almond encrusted turkey and mushroom croquette matched with the Lily's Garden.

Yanks are Coming

We had our first American visitors recently. That's right. You other folks better get on the ball! Mark's cousin, Paul Butler, and his lovely wife, Cheryl, made the trip over many ponds to see Australia and us. We were probably a side benefit, but they were nice enough not to point it out.

During the 10-day stay we were able to make it to Phillip Island and The Grampians National Park. Both have a plethora of wildlife to offer and are within three hours drive of Geelong. Phillip Island is renowned for its Penguin Parade, which means that groups of penguins come in from two weeks out at sea and waddle into their burrows every night. The Grampians yielded some amazing hikes, more kangaroo than you can shake a stick at, Aboriginal art work from around 5,000 years ago, and some great dinners with the Butlers (ask them about the sticky date pudding)!

The highlights of both trips, however, were the unexpected events: the wildlife reserve where we were able to hand-feed kangaroo, pet a koala, and see an orphaned kangaroo joey that makes its home in a pillowcase until it is old enough to move out of the "pouch", a great winery lunch at Red Hill Winery on the Mornington Peninsula, and the experience of driving down a 4-wheel track in the Grampians to be inundated by kangaroo and wallabies that were tame enough to observe closely. We even saw an emu or two!!

Shaking and Baking

Julie has just completed her second week of her culinary certification in Melbourne. The classes for this term are Pastries and Desserts, Eggs, Vegetables and Farinaceous, and Update Food and Beverage Knowledge. Her pastries still need work, but her Hell's Kitchen teacher will surely scream at her until perfection is achieved!!!

On the return route from Krabi to Australia, Julie was required to spend the day in Bangkok again to await a late evening flight back to Melbourne. She had a harrowing taxi ride (no seatbelt and in monsoonal weather) into the city to take a Thai cooking class at the Blue Elephant. The restaurant is world-renowned and has several locations across the Middle East and Europe. On the menu for the day was, Green Curry Chicken, Spicy Green Papaya Salad, Spicy Prawn Soup, and Pad Thai.

Let me tell you.....Those little Bird's Eye Green Chilies will get you. Crying and all, the feast afterwards was excellent!

Sawadeeka, Thailand!

Mark had to make a quick business trip up to Bangkok last week, so Julie was able to piggyback on the trip and visit Thailand for the first time. Spending one night in Bangkok and then flying down to Krabi, Julie got a great introduction to Thai society and Mark had a nice refresher.

Bangkok is famous for its odd, little markets. The goods range from real junk to kind of junky to pretty good stuff. This usually includes a ton of counterfeit material, but it should also be said that Thai silk is some of the best in the world. If you look hard enough, you can find some gorgeous stuff.

Here is a collection of the "junk", I mean, "treasures" that we found on our only night in Bangkok. Just skip this part if you are a man.

- A hot-off-the-press pair of Victoria Beckham Rock and Republic jeans for $12. The Thai woman working in the booth looked at Julie and said, "You need 31". In other words, you are a fatty!

- A Chloe Paddington knock-off handbag for $20. Really the only indication that the bag was to resemble a Chloe was the paper "Chloe" tag attached. Who cares?

- A silver, Tiffany chain complete with the little, blue bag for $15.

- Really random, big elephant pants. Don't ask. Julie gets pressured into buying things!

- Unfortunately we missed out on sampling the crickets!

Some pictures from the Grand Palace in Bangkok. Constructed in 1782, all of the Thai kings lived inside the walls up until the mid-1900's. The famous Emerald Buddha (it's actually made of jade) is inside the palace, and they actually change his costume based on the season. Really beautiful!

Krabi (meaning sword) is a province on the coastline of the Andaman Sea. The region is almost directly behind the island of Phuket. Several movies have benefited from the beauty of this area of Thailand including a James Bond film and The Beach with Leonard DiCaprio.

The Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 did affect the area, but the only evidence of the catastrophe that we found were newly posted evacuation signs and some memorialized debris on some of the ancillary islands in the Krabi Province.

Thais are known for their superior level of customer service, but it was insane at the resort in Krabi. No water glass ever went empty, people arrived at your door so fast after you called for assistance that you could swear they had to be hiding in the bushes, and we received a friendly bow and a "Sawadeeka" upon each encounter with a staff member. Many U.S. hospitality-oriented businesses could learn a lot!

(L to R) 1. Yes, this gibbon we spotted on our sea kayaking trip is a male! 2. Julie holding a gypsy bone from the cave where we spotted the gibbons. 3. Sea Kayaking through a forest of mangrove trees. No crocodiles spotted here in years!!! 4. Mark at Hong Island, an island about 15 minutes away from our resort by long-tailed boat 5. Snorkeling on Hong Island. The little, yellow fish liked bread and biting Julie's legs. 6. Monitor Lizard seen on Hong Island. They can apparently count and self-reproduce and are related to the Komodo Dragon! 7. Wreckage of long-tailed boats that still remain on Hong Island after the Tsunami of 2004. 8. Our long-tailed boat that took us to 3 different islands. 9. Eating our last Thai meal in Krabi. Julie's favorite dishes from the trip were the Spicy Green Papaya Salad and Garlic and Peppercorn Soft Shell Crab. Mark loved to eat the "Asian" breakfast every morning which was usually fish and noodles.