My Journey Girls Dolls Adventures: July 2018

Rainforest, Seashore, and Animals

Port Douglas is a city north of Cairns. Many of the boats that go out to the Great Barrier Reef leave from this little town, but it has much more to offer than just the launching point for the reef boats. It is also close to Mossman's Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest, it has 4 miles of beach to walk on, a beautiful coastal drive, an animal sanctuary, and lots of shopping.

Matilda didn't get to go swimming at the Great Barrier Reef...for many reasons, but she did still get to enjoy the ocean. She loved walking along the beach.

The ocean views were amazing, especially in the morning.

And the difference in the beach as it snaked it's way south was astounding.

Of course there were sandy beaches, some only revealed at low tide, with creatures crawling around on the sands.

Some of the beach was covered in smooth round rocks, pushed up the embankment by the waves, tumbling against each other until smooth.

This was a favorite area of Matilda's because the rocks were so beautiful.

She picked some up, looking at the colors and feeling their smoothness, but left them at the beach since it is illegal to take them from there.

Some of the shoreline is covered in dark black jagged rocks.

These areas form tide pools that house all sorts of interesting animals. Matilda spots lots of crabs as she explores the rocks.

A few lizards also scamper around the rocks. Where there is sand she finds starfish moving along the sand with their hundreds of tiny feet. She sits and just watches the waves, enjoying the sound of the ocean.

Further along the road from Port Douglas south, travelers have set up cairns to mark that they have been here.

Hundreds of these stacks of rocks sit on the beach in this one area.

Some of them are impressively large. Matilda takes some time and builds her own cairns to commemorate her trip.

Her last stop along the ocean road is a picnic area sitting right on the beach. Beautiful trees shade the picnic area where she could eat and look out over the ocean.

She leans against one of the trees, enjoying the wind blowing against her face. Another amazing place on the seashore.

The Daintree Rainforest is the oldest rainforest in the world.

While exploring the easily accessible path you can feel like you are in the Jurassic age.

The ferns are gigantic as are the huge trees with their hanging vines and twisted roots.

Matilda saw a few bush turkeys, but not much else as she explored the forest...well besides all of the awesome trees and scenery!

While in Port Douglas, Matilda takes some time to explore the many shops the main street has to offer. Lots of souvenirs, clothes, snorkel equipment and food can be found in these shops.

Since she is visiting in the winter, there are not many people out, but in the summer, this corridor is packed.

The last place that Matilda visited in Port Douglas was an animal sanctuary.

The sanctuary was home to hundreds of amazing Australian creatures.

Of course there were kangaroos, wallabies, and koalas, but they also had cassowaries, emus, ducks, and even some huge pelicans.

She loved seeing all of the animals.

The koalas were her favorite, but the kangaroo with a joey in its pouch was a very close second.

She was not as excited to see the large spider hanging from its web, but she was glad it was here rather than out in the rainforest.

Ick!!! that thing would be scary to run in to!

After visiting the sanctuary, Matilda gets on a plane and flies to Melbourne. From there, she is going to visit Philip Island and drive the Great Ocean Road.

Australian Girl Doll Matilda in Sydney

This blog is dedicated to the Journey Girls. But every once in awhile I like to spotlight a different type of doll. On my recent trip to Australia, I picked up Matilda, an Australian Girl Doll. I found Australian Girls around 3 years ago and fell in love with their cute faces and design (they have the same quarter breast plate that the Journey Girls do). Unfortunately shipping to the US was not awesome...so I put off buying one. As I planned our vacation to Australia, I made sure that I would be able to get an Australian Girl. Unfortunately that meant there wasn't room in my bags for a Journey Girl to visit Australia. But, Matilda was a great sport and let me photograph her instead. So here are some photos of Matilda from her trip to the east coast of Australia.

Matilda's holiday begins in Sydney, the state capital of New South Wales, and the most populated city in Australia. It's hard to narrow down what to do in such an expansive and amazing city. Since Matilda is only 5 blocks from the Circular Quay, she starts her sight seeing with the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Known locally as "the coathanger", the bridge was completed in 1932, making it possible for people to get from the residential areas in the north, to the city centre in the south, more easily than using the ferry's that were common at that time. It has now become an iconic piece of Sydney, being the 2nd most recognized landmark in Sydney.

Matilda loves how simple and elegant the bridge looks. As she looks closer at the top of the bridge she can see people walking along the top arch.

She finds out that for a fee you can walk across the top of the bridge to the middle of it. No thank you! she thinks. Too high!

Still, she enjoys seeing the bridge from Circular Quay, from the opposite side at The Rocks, and even the view from the Opera House is neat. Matilda finds out that the bridge is under constant maintenance, one of the biggest jobs being painting the bridge. It takes over 6,000 gallons of paint to cover the bridge for each coat. That is a lot of paint!

Across the bay from the Harbour Bridge is the infamous Opera House. Designed by Jorn Utzon, the Opera House took 14 years to build and cost $102 million. An amazing building with it's sail like structure.

The white of it's tiles, over 1 million of them, reflecting the light from the sun. Seemingly impossible arches. All come together to make a beautiful monument.

Matilda loved walking around the outside of the Opera House, marveling at the tiles, the ribs of concrete that make up the shells, and the amount of glass everywhere.

On a tour of the inside, she finds out that most of the Opera House has exposed beams and structure so that people can admire the beauty of the construction.

Also the stages have areas to admire the harbour, making intermissions much more enjoyable. Each stage has different uses and was built with those specifics in mind.

The stage for orchestra, does not work well for plays, and vice versa. With over 8 million people visiting the Opera House each year, it is Australia's number one tourist destination. Matilda was extremely glad that she was able to visit it.

Another attraction in the same area is the Royal Botanic Gardens. Home to thousands of trees, flowers, bushes, ferns, and even bamboo, the gardens cover almost 75 acres.

The park is also home to hundreds if not thousands of birds. Matilda loves sitting on the roots of the huge Moreton Bay Fig Tree.

The roots like ribbons weave their way out from the trunk. She is amazed at how large the trees can get and how many branches and roots tangle out from the trunk.

Exploring the Botanic Gardens can take hours or days to explore, depending on how slowly you want to go.

Matilda walks along the paths finding amazing plants and lots of birds. The sacred iris is concentrating so much on eating that it doesn't care that she stands only a few feet away from it.

She hears a beautiful song and looks around, expecting to see a brightly colored bird. What she finds is another black and white bird, this one looking similar to a crow.

The magpie lark has a much prettier sound than a crow though. A bird that does not have a pretty song is the cockatoo.

The beautiful white parrot with a yellow crest congregates around trees that drop small helicopter seeds. Matilda counts 20 cockatoos around the tree eating seeds and making an awful racket.

Matilda wonders away from the cockatoos into an area with some ducks and a small pond. She loves how the sun shines through the trees and sparkles on the pond. What an amazing little area of the gardens.

She walks down a small path covered by bushes. Matilda hops up on the fallen tree, used for a path marker. She balances herself as she walks along the log, jumping off at the end.

More path lead Matilda to the Fleet Steps, which lead down to the harbour, giving an amazing view of the Sydney Opera House and downtown. One her way back up the stairs she spots a Kookaburra.

Right now the bird is quite, but when it decides to sing, its song sounds like the bird is laughing.

After a little bit more exploring, Matilda decides to call it a day at the Royal Botanic Gardens. There are many more things to see in Sydney. The next day, Matilda walks down Kent Street towards Barangaroo.

Unlike the steal and glass look of downtown Sydney, Kent Street looks similar to some streets in England or even New Orleans.

Surprisingly, there was a London taxi, painted pink, used by a hotel, that made the street feel even more out of place.

She gets to the end of Kent Street and makes a left towards Barangaroo Reserve. Barangaroo Reserve is a new area in Sydney, compared to the Botanic Gardens and the Opera House.

Opened in 2015, this area was previously a concrete container terminal. Now beautiful Australian sandstone lines the shore.

Matilda sits on one of the over 10,000 blocks that makes up the shoreline now.

The reserve has amazing views of the Harbour Bridge and the less known, but still amazing, Anzac Bridge.

Matilda really likes all of the open areas and the many paths that ribbon through Barangaroo.

On the way back to the hotel, Matilda goes past the Garrison Church,