More Melbourne

G'day again!!! They actually say that here. . . all the time! We're leaving Melbourne this morning so we've repacked but seem to be having a lazy start. My main fear is that I have to get out of this city -- driving. They have a really interesting way of making right turns here because there are tram cars in the middle of the road. The first time I noticed it, we were walking along the sidewalk and we had to stop so I could watch. There's a car-sized rectangle painted on the road on the left side within the intersection. If a car wants to make a right turn and the tram is around, it drives up to that rectangle and sits there with all the other cars going all over in the normal way. Then, the weird part is that the light goes red and the car makes its turn! I've watched this happen a couple of times but I'm still not totally clear how the driver knows what to do so I told Jay to try to route us out of the city without having to make any right turns. He worked on that last night while I wrote in my journal. He thinks he has that figured out, so we'll see. Keep all fingers and toes crossed so I don't hit anything!

We went to the Botanic Gardens yesterday and walked around for about an hour and a half. It is a huge "garden" and we wanted to see the names of all these amazing trees we've been seeing everywhere. They really do have the most interesting trees! My favorite is the wattle tree. . .  and since it's spring here, this tree is in bloom and it is incredible. The entire tree is covered with fist-sized puffy balls. The best picture we have is one with all yellow blooms so I don't know whether they are all yellow. I also bought some spices at a great spice shop buried down an alley here. It is called bush pepper and has wattleseeds as part of the mixture. It also has desert tomatoes ground up as well and I tried eating those too. . .  great flavors when all together. Very pungent. I bought several tablespoons in case anyone wants to try it.

Well, I better sign off. Good luck to the FSO tonight for its opening performance of the season!!!! I'll be thinking of everyone!!

Melbourne Photos

Strange & wonderful plants: Fitzroy & Melbourne Botanic Gardens

The tea room, The Windsor Hotel

Melbourne Day One

   We spent yesterday looking around Melbourne. Our colds seem to be improving - Cheri was not bad yesterday and I am one day behind her, so things should be OK in the next day or two.
   We started yesterday going to the National Art Museum of Victoria. Their special exhibit was "Paintings from the Hermitage Museum", but unfortunately the wait line to buy tickets was too long, even though we got there right after they opened. So we checked out a couple of other exhibits (one on the horse in art), then walked back to the city centre. We visited a couple of the shopping arcades and walked the streets before lunch.
   We then took the free city circle tram around downtown and out to the rejuvenated Docklands. Completing the route, we walked over to Fitzroy Gardens, checked out the strange and wonderful plants (photos later), and toured Captain Cook's Cottage.On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Windsor Hotel and managed to get the last booking for high tea there this afternoon.
   We tried for dinner last night at Rice Paper Scissors, a highly rated Asian restaurant, but they don't take reservations. When we arrived, the wait was over an hour, so we walked a few hundred feet to Becco, a pleasant (although a bit dark) Italian restaurant - Cheri had the roast duck (always her first choice) and I had saltimbocca.. Good restaurants are everywhere in Melbourne's downtown area - there were probably 50 of the city's top one hundred within 3 blocks of where we ate, and most of the rest within five blocks.
   Off now to do a little more street and arcade walking (there are a half-dozen 19th century shopping arcades here). then high tea, and an afternoon at the Botanical Gardens.

The Great Ocean Road

   Today is Wednesday and as of tomorrow, we will have been here for 3 weeks already. Amazing.

Hills west of Apollo Bay

   (John here: Early this AM, while Cheri was resting her cold, I went on a short hike at Mait's Rest, just west of Apollo Bay. Trees were even bigger than at the Otway Fly.Very Jurassic Park!)

On Mait's Rest hike

   Firstly, in answer to Ken's question about seeing kangaroos all over the place in the Grampians. . .  no. But we did see an inordinate number of dead ones along the side of the road! Then we saw one wallaby but it scooted off into the woods before Jay could get a pic. I think you had a distinct advantage by camping because you were then in the areas where all the roos were active at night. Since we're not supposed to drive after dark -- they don't insure the rental cars for accidents from sunset to sunrise -- we are not out and about in the dark. Plus, with us both having colds now, we get into the place we'll be spending the night and just collapse. That doesn't mean we don't head out to find a good place for dinner. It just means we're not walking around when the nocturnal critters are active.
   This morning, as we drove along the Great Ocean Road, we did pull into Grey River Rd. in Kennett River to look for koalas. When we pulled up, there was a family standing by the road with maybe 50 birds of all kinds all around them. They had bird seed, so birds flew in from everywhere. The parrots were sitting on their heads, shoulders, and arms and were eating out of their hands. We walked up and a green parrot flew onto my shoulder but left when it discovered I didn't have anything to feed it! Cockatoos flew in by groups screeching all the way and driving many of the other birds away from the seed. I had no idea that cockatoos were so prolific in Australia.

Friendly cockatoo

   As we walked further up the road, we saw 5 koalas in different trees along the road. A couple of them were pretty active considering it was time for their nap. Two of them we found because of the noise they made: they sounded like pigs or hogs grunting. It was pretty loud and we both looked and looked until we saw them. I think the one was disgruntled because the other one was too close. It left and found another branch from which to sleep!

Koala and friend

   We had another great meal at an ocean-side fish place in Geelong. we had battered "flattie" (flathead - description sounds like monkfish); it was very tender and had a very mild flavor. Also had prawn spring rolls (actually battered prawns with a spring-roll like filling around it) - also delicious. We are now in our room in Melbourne and will stay here for 3 nights. I'm hoping to throw off this cold by tomorrow but we're both coughing pretty consistently so that may not happen.  Jay mentioned that the kleenex here is scented with aloe, eucalytus, and peppermint so that was fun. Great idea too even though you can't smell anything when you are solidly into the runny nose part.
   Off to explore Melbourne tomorrow.. . .  we have a full schedule so keep your fingers crossed we don't poop out!
   Will add photos later if the wireless connection cooperates - it's been taking hours to upload a few photos to the Google blogspot.

The Great Ocean Road and Otway National Park

  Although we were a bit under the weather, we set out for Apollo Bay this morning. Weather was beautiful - white clouds but no rain - but the wind on the coast was pretty frigid. (We are approaching Antarctica here!). We stopped at the usual sights along the coast near Port Campbell - London Bridge, Loch Ard Gorge, the 12 (or fewer) Apostles.

Four Apostles

A couple more

   With the car heater turned up  high, we then headed for the Otway Range.
   As you climb into the Otway N.P., the scenery changes dramatically, from the rolling coastal dunes to steeper hills and then temperate rain forest. We went to the Otway Fly, a commercial elevated walkway through the rain forest. (We passed on the zip line). Amazing  250-foot tall beech trees and 12-foot high tree ferns, which are beautifully symmetrical from above. It was a chilly but worthwhile couple of hours.

The Otway Fly

Tree ferns

The cold wore on us enough that we passed on the Cape Otway Lighthouse (may go back tomorrow) and checked into a lovely room overlooking Apollo Bay, where we sit comfortably and watch the waves crash in.

View  from our room in Apollo Bay

The Grampians

   We left Horsham this morning for Grampians National Park. As we approached, the weather didn't look too bad, but that soon changed - rain until early afternoon.

Approaching the Grampians from the north

See! We ARE in Australia!

   We did see a wallaby (live) but missed the photo and then saw a couple of emus. Scenery was spectacular but dreary today so hiking was very limited.

Emus!

The fields were full of cockatoos.

   We visited the Brambuck Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Halls Gap and then headed south. An end to the rain and a delicious late lunch at the popular Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld briefly brightened our spirits, but we shortly realized we had both acquired a cold, probably on the Alice Springs-Adelaide flight.

Broken Falls, Daintree N.P.

   A few more hours driving across the flat, green, sheep-covered Victoria Plain brought us to the coast at Port Campbell. We'll do more sightseeing around here in the morning.

The Arch near Port Campbell

   In the meantime, we're sitting tight with hot soup and tissues (peppermint/eucalyptus-scented) as the rain has started pouring down outside again.

Some views from Barossa Valley yesterday