April 3 - Melbourne, Australia

On Easter Monday afternoon I walked to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to see the Australian Rules Football (or footy, as it is commonly known) match between a couple of teams I had never heard of. Australian football is unlike any other sport (elements of rugby, soccer, American football, plus some Aussie twists) and I thought it might be interesting to see a match, especially in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics stadium. I arrived a few minutes after it started at 2 pm, found the general admission entrance, and was told the whole stadium was sold out! I asked if I could just hang around and maybe get a seat later, and was told I could try the other two entrances but chances weren't too good. I tried anyway, and sure enough, no seats... Dejected (I had been told that, short of coming earlier next week, my best bet was to find a pub, have a few beers, and watch it on the telly), I walked back towards the tram stop, but as I passed one of the entrances, I saw someone taking money. Quickly I gave them my 11 bucks and got in! The stadium was definitely oversold - three rows of standing room only where I was; the papers put the attendance at over 85,000! I spent the remainder of the first quarter trying to figure out what teams were playing (Carlton and Collingwood), which team was which (the Blues and the Magpies), and which team I was rooting for (Collingwood). The second quarter I began to figure out the scoring (it was a very close game, with lots of lead changes; tied 44-44 at halftime), and the rout began in the third quarter. Collingwood outscored Carlton 40-7 to take an 84-51 lead, and then held on to win 100-66. It was a very entertaining game, and it was neat to see the crowd so fired up and passionately supporting one team or another.

April 9 - all over Tasmania

Melbourne
Tuesday afternoon we went on the Sunset Walkabout with Echidna Walkabout, a seven-month-old two-person eco tour group run by Roger and Janine. They have daily short trips and occasional long trips into the wilderness to see things as they are in the wild and to give some understanding of the native/aboriginal/Koori 6 culture. We had a fantastic afternoon and evening with them (2 pm - 11:30 pm!), stopping off at the grocery store to buy some chocolate (yeah, so we were hooked already...), then going to Serendip Sanctuary, where we saw lots of local native birds (many ducks; with binocs and a good guide they're quite entertaining!), plants and animals. These included a number of roos including a bunch that we got pretty close to, and some emus from quite a distance. Then we went up to the top of the You Yangs, a nearby mountain with lots of historical significance as a Koori observation and meeting point. Much of this was just recently learned, as the whole mountain went up in flames in 1983, exposing many old artifacts! Free chocolate at the top... Then the fun began. After seeing the sunset at the top of the mountain and making our way back down in the dark, we sat down to dinner. Bread; salad; potato salad; and steak, green pepper and onion shish kebabs. Plus wine. Plus tea, with blue gum (a eucalypt) leaves. Plus we got to keep the cups with the cute Echidna Walkabout logo! With our names on them! After this feast, we then went spotlighting for native animals. We had seen a few kangaroos around the toilets earlier, and at night with the lights, we saw a tiny sugar glider possum, a few brush tail possums, and three kookaburras! Finally, at about 11 pm, we headed home to Melbourne after a wonderful day. It's hard to describe fully the atmosphere that surrounded us that day with Echidna Walkabout, but it was just magical. It was great to be with people who obviously love what they're doing, do a good job of it, and teach others quite a bit in the process. It was definitely a highlight, of Australia at least if not of the entire trip!

Melbourne Zoo
Wednesday morning we got up early and went to the zoo. It bills itself as one of the top ten in the world (wonder what the other nine are?) and although it seemed fairly small (though we didn't see quite all of it since we were pressed for time) it has a few great exhibits. In addition to the standard-but-only-in-Oz native animals such as the industriously digging wombats , dead asleep echidna and frantically swimming platypus, there was a walkthrough area called Bushland. In this area there were a dozen roos, half a dozen [huge!] emus, and various ducks, geese and other birds. The basic idea was similar to Serendip Sanctuary, but here the roos and emus were a little less afraid of humans and would approach quite closely (we were afraid of them this time!) for amazing face-to-face encounters! Also saw my favorite animal (since Auckland), the inquisitive meercat.

After the animal zoo, we went to the people zoo. Er, the Fairy Penguin Parade on Phillip Island. Although the penguins themselves were great to watch, the whole huge crowd scene is a different story and our ass of a coach driver didn't help matters much. Fortunately, we were the first coach to arrive (after a stop at the Koala Sanctuary where we saw - guess what - koalas!) 7 so we got primo seats in the viewing area - enough standing room for 300 people to see the world's smallest penguins on their daily walk home from their busy day at sea. They would swim up near the shore, arriving in groups of up to a dozen, and eventually make their way through the waves to the shore, where they would stand around for a while until one of them would decide to go back in for a swim, in which case the others would all race back into the ocean, or to start the long walk home, in which case they would all race to the edge of the beach. Once at the beach, it took them a good 20 minutes to disappear from view, since they had to stop at about four points along the way and wouldn't continue until the penguins above them had gone. It was very interesting watching them as they looked at times bird-like, duck-like in the water, but generally just penguin-like, doing their own thing and looking hilarious (to us, at least) doing it. But if they laugh, I'm sure they laugh at the daily Human Parade as well.

Driving around Tassie
Thursday the next big adventure began. We flew to Tasmania and decided to rent (excuse me, hire!) a car to get around. So now I'm driving on the wrong side of the road, sitting on the wrong side of the car, using the wrong hand to switch gears (and I'm used to automatics!), etc. Even the windshield wipers and turn signals are switched, so at first I was wiping my windshield to turn left! Now after four days of driving (and the K's certainly add up faster than miles!) I'm pretty comfortable with it, but it took some getting used to at first 8 . We drove down the rugged West Coast of Tasmania, camped for free at Ocean Beach and watched the sunset, then Friday morning made our way through a number of old mining towns to the Cradle Mountain - Lake St. Clair National Park. We saw about ten Bennet's Wallabies hanging around, plus lots of ravens and raven-like currawongs, and took a short walk to the Watersmeet Bridge, where the waters meet... We arrived in Hobart too late to take the Cadbury / Schweppes tour but just in time to buy some Camping Gaz for our stove so we didn't have to pay 20¢ to use the electric burners!

Port Arthur Penal Colony
Saturday we drove to Port Arthur, home of Tasmania's last prison settlement. We passed our second Wallaby Crossing road sign and about a hundred road kill specimens 9 . Quite a few possums, quolls, other random small roo-like marsupials, and what appeared to be a few wallabies and wombats. Incredible numbers of dead animals, and ones that can't be found anywhere else in the world!

April 15 - Kangaroo Island, off the coast from Adelaide, Australia

Port Arthur
Port Arthur was the main convict settlement in Tasmania for a number of years. It was closed down in the late 1800's, but after a years of trying to ignore and forget it, many of the old buildings have been restored and it's now Tasmania's largest tourist attraction. It's fairly close to Hobart, but there wasn't a road until post-convict days, and at its narrowest point the Tasman Peninsula is only a few hundred metres wide, so it wasn't terribly accessible, or easy, to escape. To make things a wee bit more difficult, guards and guard dogs were stationed all the way across this narrow opening, including a few posts on the water. To foil those few convicts who could swim, rumors of shark-infested waters were spread. Despite these precautions, a few folks were able to escape, although most either drowned or were recaptured. One former actor escaped for a short time by dressing up as a giant kangaroo, but two guards who were out hunting took him for a real roo and were about to shoot him, so he wisely surrendered, identified himself, and was recaptured.

We went for a tour of the old prison complex; the most shocking area was the "silent" or "model" prison, which was considered to have remarkable success in controlling dangerous prisoners. They were placed in small individual cells with a bed as well as whatever work equipment was needed for weaving, bookbinding, etc. They were allowed one hour of exercise per day. Absolute silence was maintained at all times - the guards used hand signals to communicate, and when the prisoners went into the chapel to pray, they were placed in individual compartments so they couldn't see each other. They were identified only by a number, and whenever they left the cell they had to wear a mask so their identity was completely secret. They remained in this prison for as long as 18 months, and if they broke any rules they got moved to the special cell. Four consecutive doors lead into this cell to prohibit any light from entering at any time, the inmate was only given food and water, and just one hour of exercise in three days. Prisoners were kept here from 1 to 30 days, and those who hadn't gone mad by the time they entered generally had by the time they left. Not a terribly fun place to be... We also took a lantern-lit ghost tour of the various haunted buildings in the prison that night. We got a certificate of bravery for surviving it, although we didn't see any ghosts or unnatural occurrences.

Eastern Tasmania
The following day we drove to Coles Bay and Freycinet National Park. We had planned to camp, but were swayed by the continuing rain and the spa tubs in the cabins at the Freycinet Lodge. So we splurged and had a wonderful evening in our own cabin with a great tub (although the brown water due to the tannins was a bit "interesting"), warm bed and coffee making facilities. Even a grass tennis court and free racket hire which would have been wonderful except for the fact that the rain didn't let up the whole time we were there so we didn't take advantage of that particular amenity. Maybe next time... We also took a nice four hour walk to the Wineglass Bay lookout (great view of the beautiful waters in the Bay), the bay itself, over land to Hazards Beach, then back over the Hazards Mountains as the rain started and eventually got quite strong. The following day on our way back to Burnie / Wynyard, we passed our best road kill yet, as well as a Kangaroo (or Wallaby) Crossing sign - two excellent specimens of Tassie Devils, and a huge freshly killed but not yet mutilated wombat! The wombat was right in the middle of the left lane on a corner so I'm sure it will either get run over a few more times or cause some accidents. Also on the Freycinet walk, I heard what appeared to be a cat meowing, but since we were an hour away from civilization, I think it may have actually been a spotted quoll, the native cat, which we had seen on the road and doesn't look terribly cat-like (but it's spotted, so easy to identify)!

Great Ocean Road
Then back to Melbourne, and the next morning onto the Wayward Bus for our three-day trip along the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide. But we had one last great meal in Melbourne - cheap and tasty Thai food including Chilli Chicken, in Richmond, the suburb where we stayed the night.

The Wayward Bus was a 22-seater traveling off the beaten path along the Great Ocean Road but taking lots of sidetrips and going through six National Parks in the three days. We went to the 12 Apostles, towering pillars in the sea formed by weak rock eroding away and the hard rock remaining; London Bridge, a natural bridge formed by the same forces, that collapsed a few years ago; and a number of other interesting sights along the road. We camped in the little town of Port Fairy for $8, our cheapest night yet, save the free one at Ocean Beach! We also had lots of little adventures along the way over the three days - hiking up to the top of an old volcanic crater, driving and walking through a nature preserve and seeing lots of emus 10 , koalas (including one that was hilarious to watch as it stretched as far as it could for food, looking like it was going to fall or break the tiny branch it was clinging to high in the trees), and of course, roos. In other places, we saw lots of birdlife - Cape Barren geese, huge Australian Pelicans, and many many black swans!

The second day our big adventures included seeing an echidna! It was right by the side of the road, and when we stopped and took a look at it, it just curled up into a spiny ball and waited until we went away. There were also some huge sand dunes a little further along the road, and we stopped and frolicked in the sand for an hour or so, jumping down the hill (360º!) and doing somersaults, etc.

For lunch the second day we stopped at Umpherson Caves, which is a big (50 metre diameter) hole in the ground that had been beautifully planted with ferns, palm trees, flowers, etc. We camped for only $7 the second night (!) (which helped do wonders for our $32 lodging budget...) but had dinner at the local pub / restaurant with the rest of the Wayward gang. After dinner we went back to the YHA hostel, where most people were staying, and played drinking games till the wee hours. Oh...scones! We stopped for morning tea at a remote hostel in the country, where for $2.50 we were served wonderful scones with jam and cream, and coffee. It was a really homey place run by a very friendly woman - one person from the bus decided to stay there for a few days!

The third day our morning stop was at a sheep station, where for $4 we had a complete breakfast, saw a sheepdog round up sheep (amazing amount of energy and skill!), and also a sheep shearing demonstration. An amazing amount of wool comes off the sheep, and expert shearers can do as many as 200 per day! They're paid by the sheep; I think $1.28 per head. They also had an orphaned kangaroo joey [GL] that was really cute, especially when it jumped into its pouch-like wool bag and lay there all piled up with its big feet going every direction. Got to feed an amy [GL] too! It was our first sunny day finally, so for lunch we had a wonderful barbie [GL]with sausages, grilled veggies (spelled veges in some places, but not consistently like in NZ), salad, fruit, etc. Then we went to a winery, had a short tour (given by our bus driver) and tasted some tolerable wine and pretty awful port and sherry. We walked through the old German town of Hahndorf, and arrived in Adelaide on Thursday evening.

Singapore

Kangaroo Island
Back in Oz - we took a two day tour to Kangaroo Island, which left a bit to be desired but was still a very worthwhile trip. A long morning bus ride to Cape Jervis followed by an hour boat trip to Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island, where we got checked into cheesily tiny rooms at the youth hostel and had the rest of the day to ourselves. We relaxed, did some laundry, hung out at the local pub, and made some phone calls to the local airlines, where we discovered that:

1. Singapore Airlines flies from Adelaide to Singapore, and arrives the same time as our Sydney-SIN flight;
2. we can change our SYD-SIN flight to ADL-SIN for no extra charge; and
3. we can get a full refund of our Qantas ADL-SYD flight, which had cost $388 - and out of our own pockets, not XSoft's!

In the evening we went to the hour-long Discovering Penguins tour - it was amazing, and the complete untouristy opposite of the Phillip Island Penguin Parade! The Adam Sandler-like ranger first gave a brief presentation on fairy penguins, then we went out to see them. Penneshaw is a traditional nesting place for the penguins, and humans have arrived and built the town without affecting them too much at all! They march up from the sea to their various nesting places as much as 1.5 kilometres inland every evening, following the "penguin highways" which have been left to them. We walked down to one of these highways, waited a little while, and saw the penguins coming up from the shore to go home!

As we continued to walk around, we saw many of them in the bushes around us, and heard many more! They make all kinds of screeching and squeaking sounds, and it was really neat just wandering around and seeing them going about their own business. They aren't "tame", but they seemed aware that as long as we kept a reasonable distance, we weren't going to pose a threat to them.

After dinner (our last packet of freeze-dried food from the US, noodles from Abel Tasman, and wine from Tasmania!), we went out again to look for wallabies and possums. We didn't get any clear sightings of possums, but wallabies were everywhere! We walked to the other end of the tiny town, about 1K, and as we reached the outskirts, there were the wallabies. In the empty fields, in the bushes, and in people's lawns - dozens of them. They were just grazing, not moving too much, and in the light of our flashlights, they actually looked more like giant rats than little kangaroos. But when they decided to take off and bounded away, it was pretty obvious that they were wallabies after all!

The next day we had our official Kangaroo Island tour. It was a jam packed day, with something like 400 km traveled at very high speeds on very rough dirt roads. Although we didn't see too many kangaroos (except at lunch, where they are just beggars and pests and the picnic area is fenced off), we did have two great animal sightings - an echidna and a goanna! We had a bit of free time at lunch, so we decided to race the 4 km to the river in hopes of seeing a platypus or two. We didn't see a platypus, but on the way there, Shikha said we should look for echidnas, and about ten seconds later, she spotted one! It was just on the side of the road, and as we watched, it waddled off into the bush, looking very fat, comical, and cute as it swayed from side to side. We saw the goanna later on. It's a lizard that grows up to 1 or 1.5 metres long. This was about half that size, but a 20 inch lizard is still pretty impressive!

There were many natural attractions on the island as well. Highlights included the Remarkable Rocks, which look just like a camel from a distance (!), but up close are a collection of seemingly random, Dali-esque boulders on the edge of a sharp cliff leading to the ocean, with no other rocks in sight. Australia - the land of unusual rocks all by themselves - Ayers, the 12 Apostles, and these!

We also went to Little Sahara, a huge sand dune; and to a New Zealand Fur Seal colony. Unlike the seals we had seen in NZ, these were actively playing in the water, and with the huge waves in the vicinity, they occasionally got knocked into the water even when they didn't want to play.

The other highlight of Roo Island was the Sea Lion colony. This is the only place in the world where you can go down onto the beach (accompanied by a guide) and watch a colony of sea lions. They're pretty big animals, surprisingly fast (faster than humans for a short distance on land!), and a few of the immature males were in their rebellious phases, so we didn't get too close... We also saw a young pup that had been abandoned by its mother. Park practice is to let nature take its course, so unless mom relents, it's a goner.

Back onto the boat, into the bus, and to Adelaide once more, where we moved into a room above the corner pub. Then in the morning we snared a half-day one-way tour of the Barossa Valley since it was a Sunday and the only bus to Barossa didn't leave till 5:45. It was nice since we got a bit of commentary along the way (not to mention arriving at noon instead of 7 pm!). Plus we saw such highlights as albino kangaroos and the world's largest rocking horse! (In the words of Dave Barry, I am not making this up...) Also an extremely cosmopolitan group of folks on the bus - the 14 people came from 11 countries!

Barossa Valley (one of Australia's wine regions)
We arrived at the wonderful Bunkhaus in Nuriootpa, where we stayed in the Shiraz Cottage for $30. If we hadn't had our Singapore flight to worry about (plus the need to make official the airplane deals we had worked out on Kangaroo Island), we would have extended our stay and might still be there now! It was wonderfully low-key, small, friendly, cheap, and close to lots of wineries! We biked to about a dozen wineries, tasted lots of wine, bought half a dozen bottles, and ended up going about 40 km in the two half days we were there.

We smuggled five bottles successfully into Singapore (yes, right at the same the Michael Fay case was getting tons of international press...), and we're now down to three that we want to get back into Australia. Hopefully it won't cause any problems, especially since what we're trying to do is perfectly legal and we've already paid the applicable duties when we bought the wine. If not, though, this may be my last entry...

Anyway, after Barossa, back to Adelaide once more, where went to an aboriginal crafts centre and bought some souvenirs, and had some great kangaroo steaks and alcoholic lemonade for lunch!