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Published: January 26th 2007
Queensland sunset
farewell to the cotton fields...This blog somehow got published before we had finished it (none of us has admitted to doing it....) So it had lots of pictures but no explanations, so I've added to it.
A big catch up to do on our blog, we are now in Tasmania, but will retrace our steps to leaving Queensland, and the frog in the toilet...to fly from Brisbane to Melborne (flight number 7...!)
We were met by a friend of a friend Megan, who was lovely and opened up her home to us, and has since become a friend, one of the great things about travelling is not only meeting up with old friends but making new.
We stayed in Megans house in Weribee, between Melbourne and Geelong, and had a great few days, swimming in the Yarra river, visiting an amazing open zoo, looking at a sculpture trail, walking Megan's dog. We hired
The Lemon
from a car hire firm that even called itself rent a lemon... It was an estate car, or station wagon as they call them here, neat and tidy, an automatic, but unfortunately didn't like hills, and was never very sure when to change gear... still we managed about
1200km in it and it never let us down, I think we even overtook one car once....
Werribee Open Zoo, was a real treat, a fantastic zoo, Zebra, giraffe, rhino, hippo, lion, cheetahs, and more. All the african annimals of course did not look out of place in the dry dusty landscape, and there was very little between them and us, all barrieres were very subtle and the whole thing was very well done on a massive site.
After a few days at Werribee, we headed north to Daylsford to a singers festival that Anne was working at, but a detour on the way took us to the famous hanging rock, where of couse we had to have a picnic.
Unfortunately there were several hills between the coast and Hanging Rock, but the lemon eventually made it to a car park, visitors centre and acces to a great walk up the rock where we saw our first Koala sleeping in the fork of a gum tree, just like they are meant to.
I didn't find the rock spooky at all, but a great environment, gum trees and rounded rock pinnicles and crevices. There is debate as
Weribbee Zoo
I thought we were in Australia not Africa... to whether the famous story was based on any truth, when the author joan lindsay was asked she was always non committal, but a great setting, and I suppose you could get lost there if you really tried....There were lots of rocks, crevices, holes and hiding spaces under big blocks, with drops, cliffs and gullies where things could go astray, but it is not a massive scale, but i suppose we saw it on a sunny afternoon.
We left Hanging Rock, having not got lost, or mislaid any of our party and arrived at Daylesford where Anne was singing and doing workshops at a small and intimate singers festival which she loved (every one in her workshop could sing very well) Talitha joined the kids festival and learnt to walk on Stilts and learned some marimba which she played in the final concert. Bit like one of our feisean. Ronan and I did some gentle boys own adventures involving bushwalking to a mined hole which gold miners dug to divert a river, and playing in playparks in the spa town of heburn springs where we sampled the spring water which was piped through to public taps. We also
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Is that a lost schoolgirl in the background.... hired a canoe on Lake daylesford which was good fun, except Ronan would have preferred a Pedalo. We were staying at a great eco house a few kilometres out of Daylseford, courtesy of Chris, a supporter of the festival and keen singer. It was in a paddock surrounded by bush, with its own 'dam' or small man made lake and loads of birds, wallabies and normal noisy aussie wildlife. lovely relaxing spot. On the final evening of the festival there was a lovely barbecue by another lake near the town which Talitha swam in, but as the sun sank... we froze, wishing we had down jackets and more fleeces. It was great to chat with the other festival performers and we swapped lots of albums.
On leaving Daylesford the next day, we headed to Geelong but had a great stop and walk at Anakie gorge. The bush had been burnt by bushfire 12 months prior and it was quite surreal walking through the burnt landscape with the new fresh growth bursting through. Some of the colours of the trees were amazing, orangy red bark and black burnt bark. It did feel that there should have been lots of wildlife
but we did see one or two kangaroos and a koala to say hi.....
This was our first contact with the reality of bush fire and its impact.......
Arriving in Geelong though we were met by Adam who worked with us at Whitewave in 1997.... great to meet up and enjoy the hospitality of his grannies house. It used to be a rural farmhouse but the suburbs have crept up...It was a brilliant base, and we had a couple of easy holiday type days by the public open air pool and doing things like riding on a big ferris wheel and letting the kids ride on the thomas the tank engine ride along the prom. Geelong front has lots of 'bollards' which have been carved and painted to look like people but about 10 ft tall. Some are characatures of local 'worthies' and dignatries, or typical geelongites one made us smile being a councillor Ian MacDonald.....
Our next adventure was to explore some of the famous 'Great Ocean Road' which hugs the coast of Victoria taking in surf beaches, rocky coasts, gum tree filled bush and rain forests. Once again the lemon never let us down, but never
Wallaby at Hanging Rock
We went for our walk and came back to find this wallaby next to the car... managed more than 55mph as we headed west. After a quick stop to walk to a light house, our first port of call was a fantastic beach between Lorne and Apollo Bay. A sandy bay with rocky edges we had a borrowed kids'boogie board' which Talitha got the hang of, and Ronan insisted on standing on like a surf board. If I held him upright and ran along side it would slide along in the very shallow wash, so Ronan is now a fully fledged surf dude (and as his hair gets longer blonder and wilder he really looks the part...)
On the way to Apollo Bay we drove past a car parked in a lay bye, the passengers were all out of the car and pointing up to the trees. We guessed that it might be Koalas they had seen, so stopped....Loads (well about 10) of Koalas were sp in the trees, one even sleeping in a tree fork right above the road...We scrambled up the embankment and got quite close, especially to one who was just waking up and making amazing grunting noises. A real treat.
We stayed in motel in Apollo Bay which was across
the road from a travelling fun fair which was great for the kids. The highlight was definately when Talitha and Ronan shared a dodgem car and generally caused havoc....
Anne and I managed an earlyish run along the harbour and beach the next morning before we set off for Otway national park and a fantastic boardwalk through a rain forest. Massive ferns, huge high trees and an amazing humid environment. Even though there has been little or no rainfall, and half of Australia is suffering drought conditions, the forest here was lush and green.
Next we travelled inland a little to an amazing walkway called the 'Otway Fly'. Built about 5 yrs ago it consists of 600m of raised walkway throught the canopy of the gum trees. The majority of the walkway is about 20-25m high but there is also a tower with a spiral stair which climbs to 47m.
All in all it was a surreal but amazing experience and well worth the quite expensive entry fee. To be walking high up in the trees is to be in a unique environment, not only did it give a great view of the forest, but it was
also quite exciting. Ronan insisted on just about running around with Anne, so when we all met up at the end, Anne and Talitha walked around again while Ronan and I went to the visitor centre for ice creams.
We drove back to Geelong via Colas where ther is a massive freshwater lake which is suffering from the lack of rain, being a good few feet shallower than it could.
Our next excursion from Geelong ws to exlore Melbourne. We drove in, the lemon coping very well with basically a flat freeway..!! We entered the city itself after crossing over a river on a big fly over, suddenly finding ourselves practically in the middle, between river, railway and massive tall office blocks. As luck would have it we found a cheap car park richt next to one of the free city circular tram stops, so left the car and after a bit of confusion working out which were the ordinary trams and which the free tourist excursion ones, leapt aboard. They are a very civilised way to travel around the town, and the Melbourne circular one was ideal to see the city and you could jump on and
off at any stop.
We picnicked on the grass outside the library which was a lovely city sort of thing to do, explored the poshed up docklands where there were weird modern sculptures (including an upside down bottle shaped cow up a tree....!)and then visited the fantastic Melbourne Aquarium. Anne's favourite fish were the small and exquisite sea dragon, which looked like a cross between a sea horse and house plant. There were amazing horseshoe crabs, one of the oldest (?) crustacea existing, likened to the fossilised trilobites, but huge. I liked the elephant fish, which are cod sized fish with a 'trunk' which looks a bit like a flies mouth and presumably is used for feeding as it seems to hoover the bottom. Of course the real winners were the sting rays and sharks in the massive walk through tank. We also attended a childrens 'meet the diver' who told them about diving in the tanks, feeding the fish and how the rays sit on their heads. Of course it isn't the sharks or the rays which give them any problem but the tailor fish, again about cod sized and apparently their teeth are so sharp they can
Driving over Lemons
Why be in a hurry... bite through fishing nets.
We spent the early evening by the river which had alovely atmousphere, with lots of sculptures and tidied up walk ways and plazas. One of the footbridges had been turned into a commemoration of the countries that make up the modern Australia. Glass panels had statistics and informaton about the aborginies, and then all the other countries and places where Australians have come from. We found Scotland and Skye was listed.
We had a great time in Melbourne, it is clean and friendly, colourful and impressive (and reminded us of Vancouver)
Our journey back had the amazing once in a lifetime experience of seeing the comet which I wrote about in the last journal entry (because I was so excited about it.......) Luckily we could see it the next night from our house in Geelong so I manged to get a picture.
Our penultimate day in Geelong was spent tidying up and then by the pool on the front again having a meal with Megan and John from Werribbee and letting the kids play in the pool.
We tok the lemon back to the garage, then caught the fantasticly valued 'gull'
Ronan surfing...
Ronan is well on the way to being a surf dude, this was along the Great Ocean Road. More of a tango than a hang ten...! bus to the airport to fly to Launceston Tasmania to be met by Adam (who is from Geelong but lives in 'Taz') and the next stage of our trip begins.
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Mairi
non-member comment
Fab
Hi, just catching up with your adventures. Everyone looks really well, and you seem to be having the time of your life. So you should be! Don't know about you lot, but it does seem to be going ever so quickly. I can hardly believe that it is nearly March, therefore it won't be too long until you are back in Skye, just in time for the good weather starting. You certainly had the right idea. Can't wait to get all the gossip from the horses mouth and see all the photos, as well as all of you in person. We'll have to have a homecoming party and you can eat, drink and tell stories of your adventures. Love to all Mairi, Johnnie, Fraser and Angus xx