Update and California two :)

I left the hospital yesterday! After the  antibiotics started to work the recovery was super quick. All the lymph nodes are much smaller, no fever, much less pain.... They think it was scrub typhus after all, complicated by acute sinusitus as the CAT scan said....hence the sudden high fever. People have been truely wonderful here, my hosts Katharina and Jaime for taking such good care, Christian and jan and norma and Robert for visiting me despite either knowing me at all, or just knowing me a little, doctors bringing ice cream, message from people in SF I don't know who ask weather they can do something and lots of messages from friends..... a warm feeling remains :) So back to the good old times were I still had my swollen neck ;)

On Saturday 6.45 the bus for my 7 day tour left. The first day we would go to Yosemiti, high on my list of places I wanted to see. The tourbus had more chinese people than other nationalities, but I ended up next to Sandra, a nice swedish girl. It was quite a long drive into the park, but the last winding roads already gave you pretty views! In the park itself we made 6 20 minute stops and I felt a bit like the Japanese buses I saw in Gindelwald when I was a child: we would spend our entire holidays just there, walking around, while every now and then a bus full of Japanese of Chinese tourists would stop to take a picture of the Matterhorn and would drive to the next country afterwards ;) In other words: I would have loved to spend so much more time in this beautiful surrounding! But we did get all the pretty views, and even in the drought it was pretty amazing....but the waterfalls were almost non-existent.

 

Yosemiti is one of the oldest national parks: Lincoln declared it in 1864 as a protected area. There are some black bears that can run 35 ml/hr, climb in trees and have extremely good smell.... so better hide your food well.....

After the park we drove to Fresco where we spend the night in a much more beautiful hotel than I expected based on the cheap tour price! No bunk-bed with 5 snoring people around me :)   

The following day we drove all the way up to Las Vegas, where we stayed in the grand Elixter hotel or castle :) 

An amazing place with 4000 rooms and a big casino. But nothing compared to some of the other hotels: we made a hotel tour and looked at all the really well decorated places. First we went to the Ceasar Hotel, where I finally could take a picture of a Ray ;) 

They had a small show with lots of fire and lightning and a beautiful shopping gallery inside the hotel. Next was Venetiana: here they built and entire little Venice inside of the Hotel, with a painited sky, water with gondeliers and little bridges..... The last one had a more fairytale feeling, with wooden houses, talking trees and hugging bears :)

After these hotels we went to see a true Las Vegas Show: Jubelee: 36 beautiful girls dancing without tops and singing guys with sixpacks....a true Vegas experience ;) Some of the hotels have smaller shows in their back garden and we ended the day with a watershow and a fireshow that apparently costs 25.000 per time, playing the netire night 4 times per hour..... But then again, most of these hotels have a casino and about 4000 beds, so apparently there is some money in Vegas ;)

Monday was Grand Canyon day :)

 We started by taking a short helicopter ride to the bottom of the gorge  where we took the boat to get a little further into the gorge and enjoy the height of it.... The river is quite brown, which was a little unexpected after all the super blue and clear water in Western Australia.

 A bit longer flight took us to the top of the Canyon where we visited a beautiful look out from the top. The included lunch, for vegetarians mashed potato with overcooked vegetables was definately the highlight of the day, but the view that came with it, was worth it. 

The Grand Canyon are one of the wonders of the world. They are pretty, but personally I think there are more beautiful gorges than the Grand one... but I am glad I saw it :)

I spend the evening gambling with Sandra, the swedish girl I spend most time with. We gambled in total for exactly $4,- but you can definitely play a lot of games for that... most of the automated games cost between 1-25 cent per game.....Not sure weather our contribution was enough to pay our presence at the firework show ;) But I gambled in Vegas! I didn't get married though.....

Hospital

Before I continue to tell you about my trip last week, first a little update about this weekend. So a few days after I got to Melbourne, I started to get a sore throat and really big painful lymph nodes in both sides of my neck, but going up and down in size. Had some night sweats but was feeling well during the day, so it didn't effect my travels except that I have been on high dose painkillers for 3 weeks. As soon as they wore off, I couldn't turn my neck. So yesterday night the nightsweats started to increase, but ater the painkillers I was well again. Untill early afternoon when the rigirs/chills started for hours and hours and my temperature went up to 40 degrees. As I felt really unwell, my host brought me to hospital (Jaime and Katarina have been soooo great, I didn't know them untill friday, and they missed part of a wedding to be with me). There everything happened really fast, saw the doctor almost immediately including her supervisor and was started on antibiotics straight after bloods were taken. They are very thourough here! Saw 4 or 5 doctors, many many nurses and had to answer the same questions many time, had 4 full on examinations, a chest X ray and a CAT scan of my neck. HAd liters of fluid, which made me feel a lot better after all the sweating. 

So after all these investigations, they still have no clue what it is. Not sure weather the past 3 weeks are related to yesterday, or weather yesterday is just a virus.... there are quite a few tropical diseases that you can get in Western/northern Australia, but these tests take a biit longer. Nigel, the doctor in Melbourne I joined a few times sent me a nice list, and the doctors here are very happy with that ;) If I wouldn't feel so grotty, I would think of me as a very interesting case :) 

Meanwhile the temperature has come down which makes me a lot better, but all other complaints are still there, so I think they will keep me untill they know a little more. The doctors are great, one of them will bring Ice cream this afternoon and made sure I got a room for myself, which make a big difference..... people from the lindy scene her will come to visit, which I really appreciate, as I hardly know them.... it is nice that there are so many great people out there! 

San Francisco

My time in Melbourne was mostly about catching up with Matt and Lotte and Anouk. And about eating cake at Brunettis :) Anouk just turned two in August and speaks dutch and english, both quite advanced for her age. She mixes them all the time, which is good for your puzzle mind :) Her favourite sentence: "Mammi got a baby in het tommy... it is growing bigger and bigger.." just in case you were wondering. I also attended two afternoons in the Royal childrens, with one of my favourite infectious diseases doctors. And I visited Heather and Dave and their two kids Olliver and Charlie. I know them from my time working in Malawi, and they live in the most beautiful place in Ballaret. The have an amazing house on top of a hill with 12 acres of ground around it, and a superb view :) I played footy with Olliver, which you can basically win by throwing your partner on the ground, not too hard with a 5 year old ;) But of course I let him win, which he found quite normal as well, because we don't play footie in the Netherlands but only soccer, so if I wanted to play that now, we could do that for a bit.... untill I scored to goals, then it was back into footie ;) 

But on Thursday it was time to leave.... a long, long day.... First a one hour flight to Sydney, a two hour wait and then a 13 hour flight to San Francisco, to arrive at 11.00 am the same day.....I went to the hostel that was very basic but really friendly. After a power nap I wandered off to the harbour to eat a chowder in a sourdough bowl, the dish of SF (and Boston I think ;) After walking around a bit more, the energy was all gone, so I had a nice 12 hour sleep :)

The following day I decided to get up against my will and go on a bike tour. I took the famous tram to get to the harbour. These trams are more than a 100 years old and still operate in the same way: The driver needs to get of the tram to change the tracks. People are hanging out of the tram while it goes up and down the steep hills of San Francisco... it cannot get any more touristy than that ;) Or it must be riding a bike over the golden gate bridge :) That was next on the list.... when I had a very good view over the Golden Gate bridge, I asked a fellow cyclist to take a picture of me... we got to talk a bit and decided to cycle the day together. Simon from Switzerland was quite good company. We cycled over the bridge, which was very bussy with bikes but super pretty. 

Then among the coast into Sausalito to have lunch, where once again I was amazed by the unhealthy big portions... I ordered an eggplant sandwich as I though it to be one of the healthier options, but it was a lot of deepfried aubergine with lots of cheese on fried bread with chips....at least enough calories to keep you going for a bit :) Next we cycled to Old Mill Park, full of coastal red woods and some of the tallest trees in the world. 

There were quite a few steep climbs in there, especially because we took a few unplanned detours. I had the scare of my life going downhill sooo steep that even with full brakes on we still went fast, while the road ended on a bussy highway.... but I stopped in time. Old Mill Park was really beautiful, with the tall red trees. We made a small walk to the waterfall, that after a year without rain was not much of waterfall anymore, but it was still pretty, and the smell of the wood amazing. The rest of the bike ride was along pretty fishermans villages and among the coast untill we finally reached Tiburon, in total a 40-50 km ride. We had lovely fish tacos before we took the 20.00 ferry back. This was by far the best way to get over a jetlag quickly! A true recommendation for anyone who will vist SF.

About trees

Australia has many special trees that all try to survive  this extreme country in their own special way. So here a few of the trees and their special habbits.

The boab

The boab is derived from the african baobab. Nobody knows how, but this family of trees is on;y found in these two continents. It is a hollow tree with very dry fruits. It taste a bit like tamarind. They survive fire and are therefore sometimes the only trees around. The on;y thing that kills them is lightning, as the often are the hightest thing in their surroundings. The tree in this picture is estimated to be 1400 years old. It has a negative story about it. In the early nineteenhundreds, many aboriginals were imprissoned. They were often transported on foot to the prison in Derby, and this was their resting space for the night. They were chained to the tree, but often it was so hot that they would try to hide inside the tree.

The eucalyptus

This is of course a well know Australian tree, as it is the only tree the koala eats. However, there are hundreds of different family members, and the koala only eats one...oh...soooo picky those koalas!

This tree is quite a clever one. It covers itself in sunscreen to protect itself from the hot sun. You can scrape it off and use it yourself :) If things get difficult for the tree, when there is for instance hardly any water, it just shuts off one part of the tree. That part will die, while the rest will survive. 

The mangroove

The mangroove is well known for it capabality to actually grow in the water. It is a fresh water tree, but it has a special machanism to grow in salt water: it filters out the salt that will be stored in a few separate leaves that soomn wiil look yellow and die. However, the rest of the eaves will get nice and fresh unsalted water :)

Capok

This is just a picture of a capok tree: you can eat the flowers (the taste is very weak, but it looks beautiful on a salad). The fruits contain Capok, like cotton. 

Fire

There are many many bushfires around this area, mostly created by man, the so called controlled bushfires. It gives new vegetation the possibiity to grow, and it prevents natural bushfires to spread too quickly and become uncontrolled. Since they introduced controlled bushfires, many new plants and animals found their way into Western Autrlalia.

The last days to Darwin

Although I am already a week in Melbourne, I still owe you the final days of my trip to Darwin.

After the Bungle-Bungles, we drove a long way to Lake Argyle, only to stop at Doon-Doon, so special they named it twice.... it was a road house..... We arrived at 1500, plenty of time for a really nice sunset cruise around the lake. 

Lake Argyle is an artificial lake of 200x100 km, only a little smaller than half the size of the Netherlands! You can find zebra rocks here, really beautiful stones that no-one knows how they were shaped....

During the cruise we saw rock walibis and plenty of crocodiles, but the prize for the most entertaining animal went to the 7 spotted archer fish. These fish spit at you from the water when you try to feed them :) 

We finished the tour with a nice sun set swim, in the red colours of the vanishing sun :)

The following day we did a short walk in Jo creek, where there were some more aboriginal painitngs. It was quite hot climbing up the hills, but the rocks provided some nice shadow.... After the short walk we drove to Katharine gorge, where Hanneke and I were 6 years ago. We watched the bats at sunset, when thousends of them came allive to drink from the river.....Couldn't help myself thinking of all the interesting infectious diseases they can spread.....

Our final night we had a set up camp, and a feast with all the left overs from the past 9 days :)

Our last morning of the trip we were treated with pancakes and french toast, after which we went for our final swim in Edith gorge. Yet again a beaitiful water playground.... we were getting spoiled :) 

After the morning swim it was only a few hours to Darwin, where Hanneke and I booked private accomodation at the Youth Hostel. A real bed and a private shower :) They were never appreciated more.... We went to the Thursday nigh market at the beach, with lots of hippies selling hippy things.... I got lots of compliments about my hippy like Desiquel dress :) That night we went for our final dinner with the group. Another farewell to people whose company I really enjoyed....

Our free day in Darwin was all about drinking coffee, having lunch and shopping :) The following day I had to say goodbye to HAnneke, who flew to Adelaide while my plane got me to Melbourne. It was a relaxing 4 hour flight. Matt and Lotte and Anouk where waiting for me, and it was super nice to see them again :) I spend the last week with them, but I got a throat infection as soon as I got there... So I rested a lot, drank a lot of really nice coffees, nice brunches   and superb  cakes :)) Had dinner with Emmy, one   of my former collegue who is doing her PhD in Melbourne. I went to the Melbourne Childrens Hospital for the Infectious Diseases meeting and I taught two health classes about Malawi and being a Paediatrician to Lotte's health class.... Oh.... and did I mention I had lots of nice coffees and lunches and.....

The Bungle Bungles

We were finally going to the bungle-bungles, the reason why Hanneke booked this tour. Not only for their name, ever heard of a better name for a nature site? But also for their appearance. As Hanneke described it: Take a big, big stack of layered cake (spekkoek) and shape it in al kinds of weird formed hill formations…..

But not in a straight way: We took a detour past one of the most amazing bird views of Western Australia: more than 300 different species of birds in a very small area, all overlooked by some crocodiles. We had a real bird photographer amongst us, so she was the happiest girl in town, and hard to get out of the place…. It was pretty amazing though with spoon birds, egrets, pelicans, honeyeaters, birds of prey and many many others.

It was a long way into the bungles, and the last 1,5 hours were a real dollar coaster journey…. Our guide Adam likes to drive fast, and their were many pale faces when we finally made it. After a beautiful sunset, it was already time for bush camping:) We played a great game around the fire: trying to pick up a carton box from the ground with your teeth, without your hands touching the ground. In the end it was as big as a match box, and full of vegemite (an even more horrible variation than marmite)…but all for the good cause: I made it till the end and got a nice vodka with cordial as a reward :)

The following day was all about the bungles: we walked a total of 12 km in the morning and 7 in the afternoon. We saw whip snake gorge, the window, the cathedral, the dome, echidna en esstarmen, all bungle made formations. The layers of the bungles consist of red and black layers, while the inner of the rocks are white sandstone. The outside is oxidised, thus giving a red appearance. The black layers consist of much finer sand, the silt, which holds nutrients in the rock. Cyanobacteria (some kind of algae) live on them, which gives them a black appearance.

In between the walks we made a helicopter ride over the bungles: the best way to see them. A little spoiled by our previous flight, it was only of short duration, and I was even allowed to fly it myself! pfffft.

In the evening we had a cabaret. I joined in with a dancing act with Haneke and our 64 year Michael who quickly learned some charleston,. I also used an act we made many years ago at swing out new Hampshire: the canon of frere Jaques together in all language there were available: the winner of the night :) It was a fun night with a good laugh :)