100 days

That's how long it is until World Youth Day!

And how do you get all the work done with so little time to go? Volunteers. And how do you reward the volunteers for all their hard work? Dress them in some very flashy red and yellow uniforms.

100 Days to WYD was marked by the launch of our volunteer uniforms... you can find out the media reaction here...

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/for-the-love-of-god-come-all-ye-volunteers-and-pilgrims/2008/04/06/1207420201197.html

And you can see our tomfoolery here...

Anna, Alison, and I acting out 1-0-0.

Then, because that 1-0-0 display didn't impress the media, Bishop Anthony Fisher came out with the New South Wales Minister of Volunteerism. They said many good things which, summed up, means, "Please volunteer for WYD."

And - ta da - here are the uniforms. Polo shirts and jackets, hats and bags. They are Bright.

This is Barry... he's one of the super long-term volunteers that comes in Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays to help us in the Volunteer Call Centre. He speaks to our volunteers in a lovely Irish accent. And he doesn't always make this face... this is what he did when I asked him to show me his model face, over the shoulder, with a little attitude.

The hoods tie up real tight.

What volunteers look like when not wearing uniforms... these are some of the long-term international volunteers... Franciszka (Germany), Elena and Cristina (Italy), Antony (we're not sure...), Darren and Libby (Australia), David and Gillian (Canada), Tomasz (Poland), Paul (France), Anna (Poland), Thien (Australia), and Lorenzo (Italy).

"Home"

After a long and hard week of work, we were pooped. So instead of packing up and travelling somewhere ... which we love to do so we (and you, through our website) can see more of Australia ... we decided to stay home, relax and go to the beach.

Now you get to see what we call home here in Australia.

Our house, after we ...

... cut the grass (we hadn't cut it since we arrived a month ago because we don't have a lawnmower ... luckily our parish priest offered his to us). While I was cutting the grass, Gillian was ...

... photographing a little visitor to our front porch.

The back of our house ... as you can see, they don't use screens here, so bugs can come in as they please when we have the windows open (which was necessary until the nights started getting cooler in the last week or so).

Our tropical backyard ... yes, that's a palm tree, and there is also a lemon tree and frangipani trees, whose blooms ...

... look like this and are incredibly fragrant.

Now for the inside ... our dining room ... which was empty until a few weeks ago when we took a trip to Ikea to get some much-needed furniture.

Gillian hard at work in our kitchen (which is where most of the bugs seem to appear, unfortunately). We make good use of plastic storage containers.

David hard at work standing in our kitchen ... the sun makes for beautiful light in our house, to the delight of Gillian and her camera.

Our all-purpose room used for ironing, clothes-drying and storing our colleagues' surfboards.

To get this shot, Gillian burst into the bathroom while I was showering ... or is my surprised expression not convincing enough?

Our bedroom ... with the morning sunlight streaming in (for those like Gillian who noticed she's wearing a different outfit than in other pictures, this was taken on a different day).

And our living room ... the coffee table is actually an end table donated from someone's bulk garbage pile at the side of the road ... nice and simple.

We didn't take a picture of our spare bedroom, but it's empty, just waiting for visitors. We miss having family and friends over to our house, so we hope to see you soon.

Never judge a mountain by its outside

... because even if you think the mountain is beautiful, there may be something even more spectacular inside. That's the case with the Jenolan Caves, just outside of the Blue Mountains National Park. These caves were discovered in the late 1800s, basically a network of caves under a mountain, formed by water moving through limestone. We got ourselves oriented with a self-guided tour of Nettle Cave and the Devil's Coachhouse, then took a tour deep inside the mountain to the cave known as the Temple of Baal. Inside we saw the gorgeous, gorgeous Angel's Wing, a gigantic shawl (or deposit) coming down from the top of the cave. And crystals sparkled in and around and above these deposits.

the end of our tour gave us enough time to take a walk along the river and across from the caves. Then back on our bus for our weaving/winding/rainy drive back to Katoomba (not a bus ride for Mom...). The highlight of our drive... Danny, the friendly bus driver, stopped at a place he discovered where wild kangaroos roam. Amazing! We got close enough for pictures and to have a nice chat with them (if only I spoke kangaroo...).

The entrance to Nettle Cave through the Devil's Coachhouse. According to the guided tour, one of the early explorers saw the devil driving his carriage led by horrible beasts through this huge entrance. Turns out he was drunk and imagined the whole thing, but the name stuck.

Some of the crystal helactites, oozing through the clay walls of the cave.

The Angel's Wing... the largest sheath in any of the caves at Jenolan. It's over 9 metres high... just a beautiful sight as you come around the corner of the cave.

The Angel's Wing and, beside it, Gabriel's Wing.

Our first kangaroo!! She was just sizing me up, making sure I was friendly.

Portrait of a kangaroo. She gave me her good side.

And this kangaroo had an itchy armpit. She tried to scratch it on the sly without me noticing. But I noticed.

Happy Kantors after our kangaroo adventure.

Bushwalking

We decided to celebrate Easter by walking ... bushwalking, as it is called here in Australia, through some of God's stunning creation in the Blue Mountains near Katoomba (two hours west of Sydney).

Five hours of bushwalking took us down the Giant Stairway (down the side of a cliff), past the Three Sisters, through lush, damp and rich rainforest (much of it filled with eucalyptus trees), over rivers, below waterfalls, over a former landslide, past an anthill almost Gillian's height (seriously) and up the Golden Staircase. All the while, we were treated with incredible views of the green valleys surrounded by reddish cliffs.

It's been a month since we finished the Camino, so we were quite exhausted by the end of the day ... but joyful to have been out again enjoying nature.
From one of the landings as we descended the Giant Stairway into the valley below.

Team photo in the rainforest.

Through the rainforest we walked past towering eucalyptus trees, which filled the air with an incredibly fresh scent ...

... tiny mosses and plants growing on rocks along the trail ...

... huge ants in tunnel-like hills (that's just its head) ...

... Katoomba Falls ...

... and huge vines, which brought out the "Jane" in Gillian.

We were walking over the former landslide and this huge rock began tumbling towards us. Rather than getting out of the way, I decided to impress my wife and throw the rock aside.

As we were stopped to have a snack, we heard a loud crack that sounded like thunder ... but was actually parachutists jumping off the cliff just ahead of us. We still are puzzled as to where they landed ... there were no clearings anywhere.

Ascending out of the valley gave us a beautiful view ... the three lumps on the left, where we began our trek, are the Three Sisters. According to local legend, they are the three daughters of an aboriginal witch doctor who turned them into stone to proctect them but was unable to reverse the spell.

Happy Easter from David and Gillian

Just Keep Swimming

After a morning of horribly boring practical things, like doing dishes and getting groceries, David and I grabbed our bus passes and camera and headed to the Aquarium! Hurray! Today is Aquarium Day! (But in a moment of complete insensitivity, we stopped on the way and got sushi... how thoughtless of us, really.)

The Aquarium is like the zoo - crowded, lots of crying kids, and expensive - with the added confusion of it being very dark in there. Once our eyes adjusted, we saw all sorts of marvellous, lovely things. Jellyfish. Cattlefish. Cuddlefish. Sharks. Nemo. Stingrays. Sea horses. Seals. Turtles. Our favourite displays were the tunnels, which allowed the crowds of visitors to walk under the water where the sharks and stingrays and fish were swimming. May we take you on a tour?

David and a stingray... we loved the tunnels visitors can walk through... way cheaper than scuba-diving.

Gillian's close encounter with a shark.

A penguin just hanging out in the pool... relaxin' and chillaxin' and all that.

The jellyfish. They are not actually this colour - there are lights shining in the water so we can see them better... though it is fun to imagine that jellyfish are the disco-dancers of the ocean world.

Seals are very speedy and hard to take pictures of... so this is all I got. It's a speeding seal head. If you can look at this picture up close, it's very cool to see their eyes... very bulbous with a special layer to protect them from the water.

Look - it's Nemo!! This aquarium had the largest number of children around it... but I pushed my way to the front.


Cattlefish. A red angus, I think, Matt.

The stingray I made friends with at the Great Barrier Reef display.

We went all the way to Sydney to the Aquarium and David wouldn't buy me this.

... or this....

A Happy, Holy Triduum

That's what we wish for you.

And this is where we will be spending most of our Easter weekend... in a Church. Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil... most of our time will be at our local parish, Holy Family. After a Lent of Camino-walking and moving to a new city, we're looking forward to the tradition and familiarity of the Easter celebrations.

This picture was taken at St. Mary's Cathedral in downtown Sydney on Palm Sunday. It's a beautiful Church (presently undergoing some renovations... that's what's barricaded off on the left side of the photo... but it will be all spiffy and new for World Youth Day) and we'll spend a lot more time there during our five months here.