We wish you a Merry Christmas...

Yep, the holidays start early down here! Or, another way to look at it is, if I want to get my presents home for the holidays, I'd better get cracking! So today I basically finished up my Christmas shopping and packed everything into boxes. It doesn't really look like much - I'm sending home five different parcels to various groups of people, and that's it! I'm cheating, too - everything for the Vincent clan's going in one box, everything for my Toronto buds in another, etc. etc. Even so, I know that I'll likely be moaning in pain tomorrow when I go to the post office to mail them... I have under 5kg of stuff that's being sent back home and it will likely cost me around $100 to do so! (Groan) So apologies in advance - not everyone is getting a present, and those who are, are getting something SMALL. With any luck the packages will arrive before the holidays!

Tonight, Mark, our trampolining coach, brought a squirt bottle with him to class. He proceeded to spend the first part of the evening spraying us with water - at first whenever we missed a trick, and then for no apparent reason other then to get us wet. Both Jen and I ended up rather soggy, but Jen definitely took the brunt of the spray (at one point I wisely stayed on the trampoline until Mark ran out of water - he would only spray those of us in the class who were waiting their turn, and didn't want to get the trampoline itself wet). Hee hee! It's not like we really even minded - it was hot today and the gym was sticky and gross. So I think it's fair to say that Mark's little stunt backfired... we found the spray rather refreshing! Although you've gotta admit that being sprayed with a squirt bottle like a badly-behaved cat is not exactly what we'd expected from trampoline class. :-)

Mark worked us really hard tonight. I think he's getting frustrated with both Jen's and my inabilities to do certain tricks. For Jen it's backovers and ballouts, for me it's still cradles and airplanes. Yargh. Tonight, Mark upped the ante a little bit - he'd tell us to do a certain stunt and give us five tries, and if we couldn't do it, we had to sit ups or push ups. Let's just say that we did a lot of sit ups and push ups and we're gonna hurt tomorrow. On the other hand, Mark does drive us home every week, and he's been pretty darned patient with us really - so all's good. I'm just not a fan of being so sore the morning after trampolining!

I'm flying out to Canberra tomorrow afternoon for a weekend camp! Jen's not coming - she needs to get as many days of work in the next few weeks as possible. So she'll be home all by herself until late on Monday when I return. In the meantime, I get to meet with Nikki, the Guide leader whose house we'll be borrowing for the week just after Christmas (Nikki and her family are going away on vacation and so Jen and I will have the house to ourselves). I'm going camping with Nikki's Guides at the Australian Capital Territory's Guide Camp, Innabaanya. So not only do I get to meet Nikki and go camping, I'll finally get to see what a Guide Camp looks like down here!

I'm back in Melbourne late on Monday, so check back then for my next report! And here's hoping Jen's able to keep herself amused while I'm away. She's assured me she plans to do a lot of sleeping in and enjoying the quiet. Of course she also threatened to rearrange all my stuff while I'm gone. Considering I've developed a bad habit of hiding plastic frogs in Jen's stuff whenever it strikes my fancy, I guess I'd deserve whatever she chooses to dish out! :-)

The Great Ocean Road

Holy cow, what an amazing trip!

I'll admit, waiting for Jen and Irene to get home from work on Friday was pure torture. I wanted to get on the road SO BADLY but of course I couldn't until they got home! I picked the car up in mid-afternoon and had all our gear and food waiting at the front door, so when the others finally did get home, we could be on our way in no time flat. Since I was the one to pick up the car, I had to drive - neither Jen nor Irene was on the insurance. Yet. Our plan had been to stop at another Europcar location on our way to the Great Ocean Road and have them put on the insurance so they could help me drive. Well, that didn't work out quite the way we'd planned it! There is a Europcar store relatively close to our house - but it was closed by the time we got there. And although we'd fully expected to be able to find one in Geelong if nowhere else, luck wasn't with us. So in the end, I wound up as the chauffeur for the entire trip. I didn't really mind though - it was a great experience to drive that road, and I'd happily do it again!

Both Irene and I took our cameras, and between us we snapped about eight zillion photos. I put up the best of them on facebook, in two albums - The Great Ocean Road Volume One and Volume Two. Be sure to check them out.

Our goal on Friday night was to make it to the town of Lorne, which is basically at the start of the Great Ocean Road itself. This was about a 3 1/2 hour drive from the city, through rush hour traffic. For the most part the driving wasn't bad, once I got used to merging into traffic backwards and all. And once we were out of the city and on the country roads, everything was fine. Of course, once we reached the Great Ocean Road, the route was extremely windey and hilly and twisty - but none of that mattered. The views and vistas along the way were totally worth it. The only thing I found myself getting annoyed with concerning the driving was the way in which the speed limits were posted. It never failed - first there'd be a sign stating the speed limit was 100km/h, and then within 50 metres there'd be a sign stating I needed to slow down to 40km/h so I could round a corner. Why the speed limit on the entire road wasn't lower was completely beyond me. On the other hand, they also had constructed numerous areas along the length of the highway where slower vehicles could pull over to let other people by. I thought this was a great idea - at no place along the Great Ocean Road is there a stretch long enough (or wide enough!) to put in passing lanes as we know them.

Back to the adventure. We needed to get to Lorne by 9pm on Friday - we had a reservation at the hostel there and needed to arrive before they closed for the night. It was easy to get distracted by the scenery as we drove though! After having the third or fourth beautiful beach roll by on our left, we decided we needed to get down to the sand and enjoy the waters for a bit! So at the very next beach turnoff, that's exactly what we did. And here's what I love so much about Australian natural attractions - there aren't eight kajillion people everywhere! We were the only people on that huge long stretch of beach. I quickly discovered that this stretch of Australia must have quite the cuttlefish population - the beach was littered with cuttlebones. Some of them were about the size of my pinkie finger, and some were as large as footballs! Cool! I collected a few small ones to bring home with me.

Once we'd enjoyed the beach and the surf for a while, we knew we had to get back on the road. It was probably about 7pm by now and Jen and I still hadn't had any dinner (Irene had asked us to stop at a Mc Donald's on the way out of Melbourne - she'd had a really bad day at work and wanted some comfort food). So off we went again down the highway... and after only a few more twists and turns, we came across a whole troop of 25 or more eastern grey kangaroos - munching on the greenery in a field at the side of the road, much like deer do back home! We turned the car around as soon as it was safe to do so and drove back to where we'd spotted the roos (this put us on the right side of the road for some good - and safe - picture taking) - and then we snapped about eight thousand picutres and even a short video! It was amazing. They didn't appear to be at all concerend about us being there, and just went on nibbling away at the plant life around them. A couple of the females in the group had joeys in their pouches, so we got to see them too. It was so incredibly cool! Unfortunately, we did have a date to keep in Lorne, so we eventually had to drive off and leave the kangaroos grazing away. But that memory is going to stay with me for a long time.

We finally arrived in Lorne about 8:30pm, just as the sun was setting, to discover that our hostel for the night was actually a whole series of really quaint little cottages, all nestled together on a hillside overlooking the town. We had managed to get ourselves a private room (hooray! No sharing!) and were looking forward to dumping our stuff and heading into town to find some dinner before all the restaurants closed down. (As a sidebar, that's one thing I'm finding a little annoying about traveling in rural Australia - even in tourist towns like Lorne, the majority of the restaurants close pretty early by Canadian standards!) Well it turned out that our room was basically a loft in one of the cottages - we had to climb an almost ladder-like staircase to get to it! Let me tell you, getting our suitcases up that ladder was a bit of a challenge. Good thing we were traveling relatively lightly!

After dumping our gear and pulling out our sweaters (we're finally getting used to how it cools off here at night), we headed into Lorne to find something to eat. True to form, most of the few restaurants still open were way beyond our price range. We settled for a tiny little take-out pizza joint, where we ordered personal pizzas with all sorts of strange toppings. I don't know quite how I managed it, but I ended up ordering a pizza with anchovies on it - and I don't like anchovies. On the other hand, by the time the pizza arrived, I was so hungry I just ate it anyway. I mean, really. There we were, sitting at outdoor tables, sipping lemonade and eating pizza, under a full moon in late November. Who cares what the toppings on the pizza were?

The next morning, we woke to find that the hostel had apparently been invaded by the local parrot population. There were tons of white cockatoos in the trees, and also scarlet rosellas and king parrots, to name a few. One of the king parrots was obviously not afraid of people at all and it flew over to check us out and see if we had any food! The parrots also joined us for breakfast, as we ate on the patio outside the hostel's kitchen. Fortunately here the parrots stuck to the fig trees and pretty much left us alone. Craziness!

We took a short side-trip up into the hills behind Lorne to go and investigate Erksine Falls. There are lots of waterfalls to explore along this part of the Great Ocean Road and we knew there'd be no way we'd be able to see them all; we decided on Erksine Falls mostly because it was closest to our present location. The walk down to the bottom of the falls was down a long set of steep stairs which my knees didn't like much, but the view from the base was worth it. I love the lush rain forest that grows in the valleys here in the southern part of Australia; every time I descend into it, it feels like I'm stepping back in time.

After the falls, we were originally going to drive straight out of Lorne and on to our next stop at Apollo Bay... but then we found the trampolines. Yep, as we rounded a corner of the Great Ocean Road on our way out of Lorne, we came across a family recreation park like no other. It was right on the ocean (as everything is here), and there was a playground, a swimming pool, a skate park, and, you guessed it, about 16 trampolines that you could rent out to play on! Jen and I paid our $2.50 each so we could bounce for 10 minutes, just to say that we'd done it. It was totally awesome - and those trampolines had pretty good bounce, too! We also enjoyed giggling at the ducks who had taken up residence in the outdoor swimming pool... the pool itself was closed but the ducks didn't seem to care that there were no lifeguards.

So then we wandered down along the beach at Lorne and just soaked up the sun for a bit before driving away. We didn't have all that far to go to get to Apollo Bay (only about 50kms), so we took our time and enjoyed the stunning scenery along the way. The road took a lot of concentration to drive, since there were so many twists and turns - so I appreciated the lookouts where I could also enjoy the view for more than a split second at a time. We found ourselves laughing at the road signs that were posted everywhere - "In Australia, drive on the left" - obviously there have been problems here with tourists who don't know what they're doing. Interestingly enough, by now driving on the left was beginning to feel pretty natural and it was only when I had to park the car and then reverse out of a parking spot that it felt strange at all. We stopped at another random beach for lunch - and again were the only people to be seen on it.

Apollo Bay turned out to be a funky little town with yet another glorious beach - and an incredible hostel! The hostel itself was only two years old, and it had been built as a completely eco-friendly building. We snapped lots of pictures of the interior, as it was such a beautiful place. Everything about the hostel was designed to save energy. There were big windows and great ventilation, to let in lots of natural light and also good air circulation. All the taps, toilets and shower heads were water-saving. They had a huge rainwater tank that collected water to service the toilets. There was a worm farm in the garden and an herb garden that we could use to add flavor to our cooking. It was just a fantastic place.

We'd arrived in Apollo Bay mid-afternoon, so we spent some time exploring the shops in town and also the visitor's center. There we learned about a place to explore in Otways National Park (basically all the forest along this stretch of the Great Ocean Road is part of Otways) where we could go and find koalas and glow worms! How cool is that? And FREE, too (we also found information on glow worm tours for $30/person, but figured that we could find them on our own). So after enjoying a 45-minute power nap on the beach, we ate an early dinner, went back to the hostel to put change out of our shorts and grab our sweaters, and then it was back in the car to go looking for koalas.

We had to drive about 30minutes back in the direction we'd come from earlier in the day, then took a rough forest access road deep into Otways National Park. The directions we had said to drive about 2kms down the road and then park and look up in the trees for the koalas. And that's exactly what we did. I couldn't believe it - seriously, every other tree had a koala in it, or sometimes two or three koalas - all sleepily munching away on the eucalyptus leaves or just snoozing. It was incredible. We wandered along the road grinning like little kids, pointing out the koalas to each other. They were all way, way up in the trees, but eucalypts have these long snaky branches with only tufts of leaves at the very ends, so it was easy to spot the koalas. We even spotted a mom with her cub! And who knew that koalas made sound? At one point, a parrot of some sort landed in a tree, I guess too close to one koala, and the koala started making this crazy grunting sound that reminded me of an angry camel. It was echoed by other koalas in the neighboring trees. Wow.

By this time the light was fading and we needed to get back in the car so we could find the spot with the glow worms. We had to drive another 5kms into the park, down a very rough dirt road, to a random picnic spot in the middle of nowhere. There we parked the car and wandered around a bit, waiting for it to get dark. We followed a trail into the woods because it promised to end in a lookout - but the lookout just showed more forest, no stunning vista or anything (strange). At any rate, it was time for us to return to the car and wait for dark in a safer spot than the middle of the unknown woods.

According to the pamphlet we had, we needed to wait until dark fell and then walk back along the road, looking at the left embankment to find the glow worms. Glow worms are the larvae of the fungus gnat - their rear ends glow like fireflies do. The worms play out a sticky thread of silk and other insects, attracted to the lights, get stuck on the silk and then the glow worms eat them. Well I wasn't sure what I was expecting to see, but what we found was totally amazing. We walked up the road just at dark and looked at the embankment, and I swear it was like looking into the night sky! There were THOUSANDS of glow-worms - each just a tiny pinprick of light - and they hung down among the plants in sheets. It seriously looked like there was a whole galaxy of tiny stars just hanging there. We walked, enchanted, along the road for a good long way before we realized how truly DARK it was now and that we should probably head for the hostel. So ended our second day of the trip.

On Sunday, we had a much longer drive ahead of us, and the biggest sights of all to see along the way. We headed on down the road around 10am, with the goal of reaching the Twelve Apostles by noon or so. We took a side trip to go and see the Cape Otway lighthouse - this was down yet another long and winding road, where we spotted more koalas - only to find out when we got there that we had to pay to get in and tour the place. We decided that the $13 fee was a little steep and took a pass on that, but we did climb the hills to the lookout (that part was free) and snapped a shot of the lighthouse from a distance. So we lost some time on that trip, but we did get to see more koalas (and we also got to curse quietly at the other tourists who were out of their cars, wandering smack down the middle of the highway, gazing up at the koalas in the trees. I mean REALLY. At least WE had pulled our car over and gotten out of the way of the traffic when we stopped for the kangaroos!)

We made it to the Gibson Steps around 1pm, and since we'd already agreed that we would eat lunch on the beach every day, decided that this was our lunch spot for the day. I am SO GLAD we stopped here. I swear it was the most beautiful spot of the whole trip. Once we’d climbed down all the steps carved into the cliff, we found ourselves on yet another strip of beach with almost nobody on it. With the cliffs towering up in the background, it was almost possible to pretend the rest of the world simply wasn’t there, and it was just us and the ocean. What hadn’t been immediately apparent from the top of the cliffs was that we were really close to the Twelve Apostles, and the first of the rock stacks was very close to where we were. So we wandered over to that end of the beach, plopped ourselves down on some big pieces of rock, and ate our lunch there.

I was totally captivated today by the sound of the ocean. It was indescribable. I love how the surf just pounds and pounds and pounds at the shoreline here – I guess I am used to the east coast of Canada and the US, where the water just laps at the shoreline, except in stormy weather. I was mesmerized by the incredible amount of energy in the waves that were pounding the shore. I loved everything about it – the sharp smell of the sea salt, the rush of the waves, and the way that all other ordinary sounds were drowned out. We took some great photos at this spot – some of which I’m already itching to get framed! Jen tried – for the second day in a row – to wash out some of our Tupperware in the ocean without getting wet herself. Once again she was unsuccessful. Poor Jen!

After a painful climb back to the top of the cliffs, we were off again to see the Twelve Apostles. I hadn’t realized how close we were – the visitor’s centre was literally around the corner from where we’d eaten lunch! But from the viewing platform, we could see many more of the rock stacks than just the one that had been visible from our lunch spot. The weather was perfect and the sun was in exactly the right spot to allow us to snap some really good photos. The Apostles are remnants of receding headlands – as the ocean works to erode the softer rock, sometimes fragments of headland get left behind, as rock stacks. This whole section of the southern coastline is littered with them.

Along with the Twelve Apostles, we visited Loch Ard Gorge, the Bay of Martyrs, and the Bay of Islands. All were formed the same way, and the shape of this land will continue to change every year. For example, we saw a sea archway which was relatively young (the hole in the middle was pretty small), and in another spot we looked at two cliffs which – until ten years ago – had been connected by another arch. I found it a little nerve-wracking to walk along some of the trails at Loch Ard… there were warning signs posted that we were to stay on the trails at all times, as the surrounding land could recede at any moment. I wasn’t entirely sure what that was all about until we went to see the blowhole. Here, the ocean had carved a long tunnel under a big expanse of headland, and hollowed out a canyon/sinkhole into which the water surged and receded constantly. The tunnel was several hundred feet long! That got me to thinking – how much of the ground over which I was walking was also riddled with underground tunnels? As these tunnels erode, eventually the weight of the rocks on top will become too much, and giant chunks of the land will simply fall into the abyss and vanish. CREEPY.

By the time we’d finished wandering through all these wonders, it was almost 4pm, and we REALLY had to get going. We’d hardly covered half the distance to our last stop at Port Fairy! Fortunately, soon after we left the coast behind for good and climbed up into the surrounding farmland. The last 100km’s or so to Port Fairy went by pretty quickly, and before we knew it, we had arrived in this quaint little town where we would be spending the night. The hostel here turned out to be quite different from the other two we’d stayed at… the building was quite old and the whole place had a very rustic feel to it. Jen and I had to do some convincing to get Irene to agree to stay – compared to the other two hostels we’d stayed at, this one felt rather… um… campy. I’m not sure how much of that was because we had a dorm room this time instead of a private room (which we’d been able to score the previous two nights). Yes, the room was small, and yes, the building was old, but I thought it was a beautiful hostel and it fit in perfectly with the town. And at least the place wasn’t full, so we didn’t end up sharing our dorm room with anyone else!

This hostel was made up of a number of connecting buildings, which I think originally had been a small manor house and its various sheds and outbuildings. Our bunk room was tiny. But what was really strange was that the front wall of our room kinda ended just above the door – there was a space between the top of the wall and the roof (somewhat like the inside of Grandma’s cottage, or the inside of Impeesa cottage at camp). There was a mom and daughter staying in the bunk room next door, and when we arrived to check out our room, the daughter (probably around 10 years old) was sitting on the top of the wall of her room, staring over into ours! Creepy! We made her go away (actually, what I said to her was “I hope you don’t get hurt up there”, which embarrassed her enough that she climbed down). However, Jen also climbed up to the same spot (it was easily reachable from the top of the bunk beds) to snap some silly pictures of us.

Port Fairy is definitely one of those towns which rolls up its sidewalks at 5pm! We had some trouble finding a restaurant that was even open, let alone that we could afford to eat at. While we were exploring the town, we came across another Australian icon – the drive through bottle shop (aka beer store). Seriously! It was set up sort of like a gas station… you would drive your car underneath the shelter and all the fridges etc. of beer were lined up there for you to peruse. Then you would choose your beer, pay for it, and drive away again! It didn’t occur to us to take out the camera though, so we missed taking a photo.

We ended up eating dinner at the local Chinese restaurant. Let’s be honest here – this was not the best Chinese food on the planet. No green tea. Steamed rice was OK but even that was pricey. We all ordered different dishes, but they came served with the same veggies – only the meats and sauces were different. But it was the most affordable food we could find, and our choices were definitely limited.

We didn’t get to spend as much time in Port Fairy as I would have liked… there is a nesting colony of mutton birds on a nearby island that we could have visited, and a charming waterfront too, but by the time we’d finished dinner it was getting dark and cold and we were all tired from the long drive. And in the morning we wanted to get on the road as soon as possible, since we wanted to go back to Torquay (a town on the route way back at the beginning of the Great Ocean Road, before Lorne) to check out the surf shops. We hadn’t had time to stop on Torquay on our way out.

We drove back towards Melbourne via the inland road (the A1), and spent three hours or so passing through countryside that looked an awful lot like home… as long as you didn’t look too closely at the trees, that is! In Torquay we wandered in and out of the surf shops, looking for board shorts for Irene, but had no luck there. Our very last stop was Bell’s Beach, which we’d driven by on the way out. In a phone conversation with her boyfriend earlier in the weekend, Irene discovered that Bell’s Beach is where the movie Point Break was filmed. None of us had seen the movie, but we felt that it was important for us to go to the beach anyway. So we ended our trip with another lunch on the beach! The waves here were huge (it is a surfing beach, after all) and we sat far up in the sand to stay clear of them. Jen, once again, tried cleaning some of our dishes in the ocean – and once again got her pants soaked. Poor Jen! Thanks for taking one for the team though!

So after that we drove back to Melbourne, which was fairly straightforward until the very end, when we ran into traffic. Traffic? Oh yeah – we’d forgotten that it was now Monday, and it was afternoon rush hour! Let’s just say I was really glad to get us safely back home… by this time I was more than a wee bit tired of the driving. After a couple of hours to rest and relax, we took advantage of still having the car to go and do a serious grocery shopping – what a luxury!

So it’s now Tuesday morning and we’re back to the normal routine. Jen’s out working at a new school today, I’ve got to go hang out yet another load of laundry from the weekend, and then I’m off to Vic Market to see if I can find some Christmas presents. It seems strange, somehow, to be back to the ordinary after such a wonderful weekend. Thank goodness for good cameras and great memories!

Her name is Sheila, and she's SO MUCH BETTER than Bruce!

...Now, if you've been paying attention, you will know that today is the day that Jen and Irene and I are heading out on our Great Ocean Road driving adventure. So naturally the first thing that we needed to do was to, well, pick up a car. Jen and Irene are both at work right now, which means the job fell to me.

And I survived!

This is only really exciting because I had to navigate driving through downtown Melbourne, on my own, and driving on the opposite side of the road from what I'm used to. Fortunately the route wasn't all that challenging, with the exception of the double-laned roundabout that I didn't know was there until I was in it! It's funny the things you don't pay attention to when you travel by public transit. I drove the car back to our house via Elizabeth Street and Sydney Road, the route that the #19 tram takes to get downtown, and which I ride all the time. Thing is, I'd never really paid attention to the fact that there is a very large, two-laned roundabout at the junction where Sydney turns into Elizabeth! Yikes! But I navigated it without a problem. Nobody even honked their horn at me!

I don't know that I ever want to have to parallel park on the left side of the road, though - it's really disorienting having the passenger sit on my left rather than my right!

This car is much, MUCH nicer than the last one. You may recall that when Jen, Tarra and I were in Tasmania, we drove around in an old beaten-up car we named Bruce. Well let me tell you. Our current car is a cute little red Hyundai Accent. She has air conditioning, power steering and (gasp) a CD player (all of these are improvements over poor Bruce). I have decided that her name must be Sheila (unlike our last car, this one is definitely a lady!). So now all I've gotta do is sit here waiting for Jen and Irene to get their butts home from work so we can get on the road.

Wheee!

Road trip, road trip!

Hooray!

I'm so excited!

Tomorrow afternoon, Jen, Irene and I are heading out for 3.5 days of adventures on the Great Ocean Road, which is supposed to be one of THE drives to do in Australia. I already know there's no way I'm going to be able to take all the pictures and write about all the things we're gonna see - so if you want to see where we're going, check out http://www.greatoceanrd.org.au/highlights/index.asp. My next report will likely be sometime next Tuesday. So stay tuned!

What is with the bus drivers here?

I'm glad my computer is feeling better - except for heading out for trampoline class, I was basically a hermit all day! Besides, it POURED rain all day today - it wasn't exactly the sort of day I wanted to be wandering around the city anyway. I got a lot of random work done today. I'm about two days' work away from having all the pictures from last summer's camps ready to be inserted into slide shows. (Sidebar - whose idea was it to write the campers' names in HUGE letters across their hats? It was great for identifying the girls during camp, but it is causing me ENDLESS hours of extra photo-shopping as I prepare the pics for the slide shows. GROAN.) I booked our train tickets for Jen's and my adventures to Canberra, Perth and Adelaide over the summer/Christmas break (we'll be on the road/rails for basically the entire month of January). I arranged to fly up to Canberra next weekend to go camping with the Girl Guides there, and to meet the lady whose house Jen and I will be living in/house-sitting for our longer trip to Canberra over the New Year. I chatted with my parents and a whole slew of friends via the magic of MSN and Skype. So although I really didn't go very far, I feel like I was somewhat productive.

Here's yet another topic I've been meaning to blog about for a while, and today is the day. Seriously now - what is with the bus drivers here in Melbourne? I swear they're all completely psycho. Most of my commuting around the city I do on the trams or on the trains, which are slow and sedate. But every Wednesday Jen and I get to sit on a bus for almost an hour on our way out to our trampoline class. And every week, without fail, we seem to get on a bus where the driver's ultimate goal in life is to drive as erratically and jerkily as possible. Yes, it has been a different driver each week. Several times, we've almost been thrown off our feet as the driver careers into the bus stop where we need to get off. There's no excuse for it in my books. I mean, seriously... by the time the bus makes it all the way out to where we need to go, we're usually the only folks on the bus - so the driver should be able to tell when his only two passengers are standing up and waiting to get off. Today's driver also wove erratically in and out of the traffic and kept braking at random intervals, as if to keep us all awake or something.

Ok. Rant over. I promise. :-)

Housing Headaches Appear to be Solved

Hooray!

Had a good talk this afternoon with Ivonne, our building property's manager, and discussed all our issues around the lease agreement we have for this place. She was very helpful and understanding and assured us that she would sort out the paperwork that appears to be so sorely lacking. (It is worth noting that she was not the building manager when we signed our original lease - so unfortunately she's left to deal with someone else's mess.) So the long and the short of it is, we'll be renewing our lease here until the 1st of May, at which time I'll be heading for home.

Phew! I must have been stressing about this more than I thought... I sure didn't sleep well last night but I think things will be better tonight.

Experiencing Technical Difficulties - Please Stand By

OK, so I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but both Jen and I are experiencing computer problems. Mine's started overheating again like it was last summer - so apologies to anyone with whom I've been in an MSN conversation lately who's had me drop off with no warning and not return. That would be the computer overheating part. Yesterday I bought a small desktop fan to help circulate air around the back of my machine, but that had no effect, since the stupid thing overheated again this morning. Today I went on a hike around the neighbourhood and finally found an electrical store that sells cans of compressed air. I blasted out the back of my machine and now I've got my fingers crossed that she'll behave herself again.

Jen's computer, on the other hand, has suffered some severe virus and spyware attacks - and currently I can't even get Windows to load on it! One of our computer-savvy housemates has promised to look at it later tonight. So for any of Jen's friends and family that may be wondering if she's dropped off the planet, well, no, she hasn't, and hopefully we'll have her machine back up and running again soon. And yes, I will let her borrow mine. As long as mine decides to keep working, that is. :-)

On a completely different topic, I realized I forgot to include a funny incident in yesterday's blog. Picture me walking along a sidewalk as I crossed a bridge on my way to the Botanical Gardens. Hordes of schoolkids on an excursion were passing me the other way, heading into the city. I have finally trained myself to walk on the LEFT instead of the right side of the sidewalk, as is the custom here. The kids, being kids, were all over the place - and several of them practically walked into me! (I didn't really care, I was finding it quite funny - they'd be concentrating on their feet, or on a friend, and then look up and realize there was a person in their way. Ha ha!) But what cracked me up was their teacher, at the back of the class, who was herding her charges with calls of "Come on now, move over to the left, it's not like we're Americans..." Ha ha ha!

Royal Botanical Gardens

It was HOT today. I think the temperature climbed above 37C for a good portion of the afternoon. Now I know I'm not going to get any sympathy from my Canadian readers if I complain about the heat, so I won't. I'll revel in it instead. :-) Since Jen and I are planning on going to the desert in January, I figure I'd better start getting used to the heat here. So instead of hiding inside by my computer all day, I went to the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Melbourne's Gardens are only about 1/3rd the size of the ones in Sydney, but they're still huge and impressive. I took it easy as I wandered - it was very hot, after all - and just kinda meandered down the paths, looking at all of the different trees and flowers. Maybe it's because I've been here for a while now, but I found I wasn't spending as much time closely inspecting each and every tree and bush. Don't get me wrong - I'm still fascinated by the plants here - but at least now I've seen most of the species and they're not 'brand new' any more.

Having said that, I did still encounter a number of interesting plants in my wanderings. I especially liked the Buena Buena Pines. I don't remember where they come from, but their leaves are arranged to look almost exactly like those thick-thin-thick-thin chenille stems we use in crafts. They were cool - and pointy and sharp! Upon closer inspection I realized that there were some sort of caterpillar munching away on this tree - they were white and had all these hairs or something on them... I decided it was best to look but not touch. I took some pictures though (that camera of mine is sure getting a workout!) and posted them in a new album on facebook - Royal Botanical Gardens.

I was also captivated by the birds in the gardens. Many of them were completely unafraid of humans and either came right up to me or completely ignored my presence, allowing me to take a number of good photographs. The coots and moorehens cracked me up - they both sound pretty much exactly like a dog's squeaky toy when they're angry! I sat in the shade of a big fig tree for lunch and I guess I was a little too close to one coot's nest - she squaked and glared at me the entire time I was trying to rest (I just wanted to be in the shade for a bit!). I also got pretty close to a kookaburra... I keep forgetting how BIG they are. I spotted a pair of possums way up in a palm tree - they were having a disagreement of some sort and squealing up a storm, which made them easy to find.

I found some relief from the heat this afternoon in the tropical section of the gardens. There is a sprinkler system set up there to keep the humidity levels high - and I was walking through this section when the sprinklers came on. Let me tell you, the rain sure felt nice - even if it was artificial! I sampled a true "Icey Pole" too - this one was real lemonade frozen on a stick. Yummy.

On the way home from the gardens, I stopped in at K-Mart and bought a pair of small fans for our rooms. My poor computer is not so happy in this heat - it has overheated and shut down on me twice this week. NOT HAPPY. I'm hoping that the $8 fan I bought will keep me from having to do a $200 repair!

Melbourne Aquarium and Brighton Beach

This morning Jen and I awoke to a thunderstorm and pouring rain - and once again, I'd like to point out that that's NOT what the weather forecast had called for! (I'm gonna continue ranting about Melbourne weather for quite some time at this rate). So we decided that today would be a good day to finally go to the Melbourne Aquarium.

It was an interesting day. This aquarium is not as big or as flashy as the one in Sydney, but they have some unique displays that I really liked. For example, leafy sea dragons are only found along the southern coasts of Australia - and so the Melbourne Aquarium has a big tank full of them. Not surprisingly, I love leafy sea dragons. :-) Taking pictures of them, however, turned out to be a bit problematic. I tried all sorts of different camera settings today and it still seems to me that getting a good photo in an aquarium is more a matter of luck than anything. Like this pic of a green sea turtle - I'm so impressed with how it turned out!

On the second floor, they have a rock pool full of young stingrays, skates, and sharks. It was one of those shallow displays where you look down on the fish from the top. Jen and I spent quite a bit of time here because the animals were VERY friendly and kept coming right up to the surface, as if they were trying to say hello! Turns out that it was almost feeding time and it was likely that the fish thought we had food. I swear some of them tried to climb right out of the water! I was especially intrigued by the elephant-nosed sharks, which were sure strange-looking!

The big display at this aquarium is called the Oceanarium, and it contains the city's biggest fishbowl - literally! In this case, we (the humans) enter the fishbowl via one of those plexiglass tunnels that allow the fish to swim over your heads. Then you end up in a huge chamber where the fish, sharks and rays are swimming all around you. It was pretty cool! Our timing was perfect - they were just about to start a feeding show in the fish bowl when we got there. So we stood in the back (wisely leaving the hordes of screaming little kids to have the front seats; kudos to all parents who take toddlers to cool places like aquariums!) and watched the divers do their thing. We were lucky - the big grey nurse sharks and seven-gilled sharks were feeling hungry today (apparently they only really eat twice a week), so we got to watch how they feed. The sharks can shoot their teeth out about 15cm from their lips! The divers fed them by putting chunks of bait fish on poles and offering that to the sharks. Pretty cool.

At the end of the Oceanarium, there's a theatre-style space with a huge window, where you can sit and watch the fish go by. But here you could also see the plexiglass tunnel that people were walking through to exit the fishbowl. So I sent Jen back down the tunnel and I took a cool shot of her from the other side. Due to the curvature and thickness of the plexiglass, it's not the best shot in the world, but it's still pretty neat! You can check it out in my latest facebook album on the Melbourne Aquarium.

We left the aquarium around 1pm, and exited into a bright, sunny, HOT day - totally opposite to the cool and rainy morning! (Again - stupid Melbourne weather!) So since we had nothing better to do, we decided to go to the beach after all, kinda to make up for yesterday's thwarted plans. We caught the train to Brighton Beach (where I was last Thursday) and did some exploring. We found these really cool beach huts in a zillion different colours, all lined up at the edge of the sand (check 'em out in my "Melbourne - Part Two" album). We ate icey-pulls (freezies, but made with real fruit juice instead of just sugar and flavouring) and walked along the sand. It was great.

Now, since we hadn't originally planned on going to the beach today, we didn't have our sunscreen or hats with us. And even though we were only out in the sun for about an hour, let me tell you, we were sure feeling it by the end. I can't believe how strong the sun is here - and we're only still in spring! We didn't burn or anything, but we did come home feeling tired and drained - moreso than we felt coming home last weekend from the Chiltern camp, where we'd spent the entire weekend out in the sun, but with hats and sunscreen being religiously applied. It was a good reminder for us that we need to always have our hats and sunscreen with us here. I'll remember 'em for next time, that's for sure!

Stupid Weather...

Maybe today was a bit of payback for yesterday's blog entry. We've been enjoying quite the streak of beautiful weather, and this morning dawned as no exception to that rule. By 9am it was 27C and brilliantly sunny. Jen and I had agreed that we'd leave the house by noon and head to the beach; in the meantime, she caught up with her friends at home via computer chat, and I split my time between doing laundry and answering emails.

By noon, the sky had clouded over somewhat, but we were bound and determined to go to the beach. We had two stops to make first. We needed to go back to a Turkish store we'd visited at the beginning of the week to get another top for Jen. She's been teaching a lot at a private Islamic school and needs to wear shirts with long sleeves - which is becoming challenging as the weather heats up. Well, by the time we'd left that shop, shirt in hand, these big, fat raindrops had started to fall.

Our next stop was the chemist's shop (pharmacy), so I could get some fingertip bandaids to protect this stupid cut of mine, and so Jen could pick up some latex-free gloves for her first aid kit. (Yep, even here in OZ, first aid situations seem to follow her around like a black cloud - she's been to several schools where her mini first aid kit has been better-stocked than the school's kit!) When we turned to leave the pharmacy, we saw to our horror that it was POURING rain - and we'd left laundry out on the line in the backyard! So we decided to head back home and deal with that.

Of course, by the time we got home, it had stopped raining. No sun yet, but at least no more rain. We decided we'd just leave the laundry on the line; it'd dry eventually. But now the weather had turned markedly colder and we were no longer sure if going to the beach would be a good idea. So instead we puttered around inside for a bit longer, then headed out to the grocery store and fruit market.

I would like to point out that as we were walking down Sydney road towards the grocery store, the sun came out in full force and the temperature was back up near 30C! I mean, seriously, what's with the weather here? When we were on our way home again after the shopping, more rain clouds had rolled in and it was raining on us. Again.

So we never did get to the beach today. I guess we're going to have to just learn to live with Melbourne's finicky weather. There are lots of jokes here about Melbourne experiencing four weather systems in a day and it's so true! I must admit I was more than a little annoyed by the end of the afternoon - we could've likely gone to the beach anyhow and had a passably good day, but we chickened out because of a few rain drops. Now, in our defense, we've also experienced days here where the weather's turned cold and nasty with no warning whatsoever. It would have really sucked to be on the beach and have the temperature drop 10 degrees in five minutes. Don't laugh - it happens here!

I know, I know... so much sympathy from all my North American readers, that the hardest thing I had to deal with today was making the decision whether or not to go to the beach. Life is rough. :-)

So far, I'm liking the Aussie concept of November

Part of me feels guilty for spending so much of today inside. Melbourne had a (rare) second day in a row of beautiful (and boy, do I mean B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L) weather. It was 32C today and not a cloud in the sky! And because the humidity is typically low here, it was hot but not icky. At all. So what did I do on this beautiful day? I spent most of it glued to my computer, unfortunately. I had letters to write, emails to answer, and budgets to update. By the time I was done with all that, it was almost 3pm! This is a wee bit embarassing because I had originally planned to spend the day on the beach. On the other hand, my chances of getting skin cancer on this trip were nicely reduced since I spent the highest UV portion of the day inside.

I did wander around the neighborhood for a bit in the late afternoon. I am officially sick of the clothes I brought with me. Add to that the hole I managed to tear in my butterfly shirt (one of my favorites - wah!) and the orange stain of something-or-over I discovered today all down the front of another of my shirts (double wah!), and I figured it was about time for me to find some more shirts to wear. So after a completely random bout of shopping I now own two more pairs of capris and three new shirts, and I spent just over $50. I'm getting better at this. Some of the bargain stores on Sydney Road actually carry clothes in my size. :-)

This evening, Jen and I joined a bunch of our housemates for an impromptu barbecue in the backyard. How wonderful to be sitting out in mid-November in shirtsleeves and sandals. I was even enjoying swatting the mosquitoes away, since it means that it's warm enough for the "mozzies" to be out. I managed to slice my thumb open while cutting the potatoes, though. What a pain! Not a deep cut but in a really annoying spot that refuses to stay closed. Jen had to do some first aid on me and now my whole thumb is wrapped in gauze and masking tape. A bandaid won't keep the cut closed. Grr.

It's going to take some serious psyching up to get ready for Christmas here. While I was out shopping today, I was admiring the Christmas displays in the store windows. They're marketing pretty sundresses, shorts and blouses, and fancy hats (much like the types we saw at the Melbourne Cup) as holiday party wear. The Christmas commercials on TV include scenes of families enjoying barbecues and sun-drenched days on the beach. And then just to really confuse things, all the familiar North American trees, tinsel, and Santas are also in the stores! It's hard to juxtapose wintry scenes with snow and sunny beach life. For some reason, I find the trees particularly funny. The government does not encourage the planting of 'alien' trees, so seeing images of northern hemisphere pine and spruce trees is strange. It also makes me wonder - are all Aussie Christmas trees artificial, or if not, what gets used instead? I have yet to see a real pine or spruce tree growing here at all...

Housing Headaches

And here I thought I could escape crap like this by coming to Australia...

We recently received a notice from our landlord that our rent would be increasing, which wasn't really a big deal until we realized by how much the rent was to be going up. Here, the rents are all calculated on a weekly basis, instead of the monthly basis that I'm used to from back home. At any rate, turns out our landlord wants to increase our rent somewhere between 12 and 20%!! This is clearly ridiculous. At heart is the issue that our lease is up here at the end of December and we were hoping to stay on - but with a rent increase like that, we may very well have to look elsewhere for a place to live.

Something about this whole thing wasn't sitting right with me. So I did some digging on the internet and came across the Consumer Affairs Victoria website, where they have all sorts of information for landlords and tenants, rights responsibilities etc. I originally went to the website to see if there was a law here about how much the rent can be increased by - i.e., is this a 'fair' rent increase. Well. In my research I came across a whole bunch of other stuff that my landlord hasn't done which he was supposed to do - and now I'm more than a little angry.

When we arrived at this house, we were supposed to be given a copy of a government booklet outlining our rights and responsibilities as residents in a rooming house. No book. That's an instant $500 fine if I choose to formally report it. Then, we were told to pay a security deposit (bond), which will be refunded to us at the end of our stay as long as there has been no damage to the room. So we paid it. But now I'm reading that there was government paperwork that was to be filled out and kept on file - and we've never seen it. That's another fine. We are also supposed to have a copy of a "condition report" for our room, in case there is a dispute at the end of our lease. While I saw the condition report being prepared, we sure don't have a copy. Another fine. It also turns out that rent increases cannot just be handed out willy-nilly - the rent is only allowed to increase once every six months here, and the residents need to be informed in writing using a specific government form. That's not what happened with us. And finally, although our lease is worded rather deceptively, making us think that we MUST move out in December if we don't sign a new lease, that's not actually the law. We need to give written notice that we are planning to leave - and if we don't give written notice, we are not obligated to move out, even once the lease period is over (this is similar to Ontario, where I signed a one-year lease on my old apartment and then lived there for six years, with no new lease signed).

GRRRR.

So the long and the short of it is, I ended up calling up Consumer Affairs and explaining our situation to them. They told me point blank that we are being ripped off and that we should consider moving out at the end of the lease. It's not that easy though! One of the things Jen and I really like about this house is that there are people living here from all over the world - it's a great way for us to meet new people. If we found our own apartment (and yes, I did research on that too, and we could likely move into a 2-bedroom furnished apartment for only a little more than we are currently paying in rent), we'd be isolated again. That's not the purpose of coming here. Furthermore, in the rooming house we can move out with only two days written notice - whereas with an apartment, we might have problems finding a lease shorter than a year, and we'd have to give at least 28 days notice before leaving.

Part of what has me really steamed is that the excuse for the rent increase is to "keep up with fair market value". But if I can rent a 2-bedroom furnished apartment for less than $500/week, why in God's name would I want to rent a ROOM in a shared house for the same price? Wouldn't you expect that shared housing like ours would be less expensive than stand-alone apartments?

So we're not entirely sure what we're going to do about this whole thing just yet. I am heading downtown later on this morning to go and meet with someone from Consumer Affairs, and I'm taking all of our house paperwork with me. I'm angry that our landlord appears to be playing dirty - and I am not interested in getting burned by him. Had that happen once, years ago when I was living in New Brunswick, and I don't want to go through that again.

Wish me luck!

Rice Krispie Squares and a BIG SPIDER (yuck)

So, based solely on the title of the blog, you know I didn't really do that much today. I spent a good chunk of the day chatting to family and friends over the computer and working on photos for Woolsey. I had also planned to maybe go out in the afternoon for a bit of a tour around the neighborhood. A couple of weeks ago our trampoline coach gave Jen and I an old bike. We finally managed to get it all fixed up and I was going to take a ride around the neighborhood to see what I could see.

Well.

When I went downstairs this afternoon to get the bike, I noticed that there was a spider web all around the front fork. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that a BIG spider had taken up residence inside the metal frame of the bike! It's a rather decrepit bike and where the frame splits to make the front fork, there's an open hole that should have a cap on it but doesn't. This is where the spider is living. Now the thing is, there are a number of very poisonous spiders here. Many of the bad species are funnel webs - i.e., as far as I can guess, the type of spider that's now living in the bike (funnel webs usually make themselves silk-lined tunnels to live in, and ambush prey at the entrance). Of course I am also not exactly the world's biggest spider fan. So for now, the bike is sitting in our front hall and I sure won't be going anywhere NEAR it until we figure out how to get rid of the spider!

The only other major excitement of the day was making Rice Krispie squares for my housemate Yo's party. Yo officially finished his teaching degree this week and tonight he's celebrating with a bunch of his classmates by hosting a BBQ in our backyard. Our contribution to the party was a tray of Rice Krispie squares - or at least, as close as we could make 'em! You see, there aren't any Rice Krispies here in OZ. The same cereal is sold here, but it's called Rice Bubbles instead. And apparently the Rice Krispie (Bubble?) Square thing isn't known here. Every Australian I've described this snack hasn't had any clue what I was talking about. So earlier this week Jen and I had decided that we'd make Rice Krispie (excuse me, Rice BUBBLE) Squares for the party.

The next problem was the marshmallows. The marshmallows here are different from the ones we get at home - they're smaller (about 2/3rds the size) and have a different texture. Don't ask me why. On top of that, it appears to be impossible (at least in our part of the city) to get bags of just white marshmallows. They are only sold in mixed packets of white and raspberry marshmallows! There was no way I was going to buy 3 bags of marshmallows just to be able to pick out all the white ones for the squares (what would I do with all the raspberry marshmallows??), so Jen ended up making the squares with a combination of white and pink marshmallows. The resulting squares have a definite pink tinge and taste... odd. Not bad, just... odd. Different. However, the other Canadians at the BBQ were certainly very appreciative of the treat!

I am hoping to actually get out of the house tomorrow. I really need to buy some prizes for those folks who won the "Name That Sculpture" contest. Plus I must admit I'm feeling a little guilty at having spent so much of a beautiful day inside - although the day started off cloudy and cool, by 10am this morning the sky was brilliant blue and the weather was just fine. Here's hoping tomorrow brings more of the same!

Barree Region Camp

Well, they may not be llamas, but we did have a family of black swans come and check out our campsite this weekend! So I can now add the title "swan rustler" to my growing Guiding resume of strange jobs... but I am getting ahead of myself... let me start back at the beginning...

Jen and I were invited to go camping up in Chiltern, which is a little town about 3.5 hours by train from Melbourne. The local Guides were hosting a region-level camp (I think this is about the same as an area-level camp) for girls in units in the surrounding area. In total there were about 70 girls, aged anywhere from 9-14, at the event.

I took the early train out on Friday morning and arrived in Chiltern around noon. (Jen had to work at the last minute so she joined us in the evening.) The ride out was interesting - there is not a lot of suburbia here (or at least, not in the North-American sense), so the transition between city and countryside was abrupt to say the least! This was the first chance I'd really had to see the countryside around Melbourne. The land is mostly very flat, with some low rolling hills. Most of the land has been cleared for farming and I passed through miles of pastures with cows and sheep and horses. I saw very few planted crops and almost no water. The small towns that we passed through on the train were pretty, but everything was dusty and dry - the signs of the long drought were obvious to me. In some towns the only paved roads were the ones which were over the train tracks.

I was met on the platform in Chiltern by Susan, the Guider who'd invited me to the camp, and her daughter Ashely. In true Aussie fashion, the very first thing we did was to go over to another Guider's house (Lynn), and "have a cuppa" (i.e., a cup of tea and misc. snacks). There I was introduced to Lynn and Gwen, who would be running the camp weekend. After tea, Susan, Ashley and I headed out again for a short bit of touring. We drove to the top of Mount Pilot, the tallest mountain (really, it was a big hill) in the area. It had a great lookout at the top, from which we could see much of the countryside. I posted the best pics from there (and the rest of the weekend) in a new album titled "Barree Region Camp". I spotted a new type of gum tree - whose name I've unfortunately forgotten - which is only exciting because it's the type of leaves often used in decorative flower arrangements. Very cool.

Susan then dropped me off at the Chiltern Guide Hall, just a stone's throw away from the train station, as she had to go back to work. I spent the rest of the afternoon with Gwen and Lynn and helped them set up patrol boxes for the camp. Gwen took me back to her house for afternoon tea. I enjoyed watching the large flock of galahs (large pink, white and grey parrots) which were feasting on the seeds from the hay bales in the field behind the house. Then it was time to head back to the campsite, as the kids were about to arrive!

The camp was really interesting. First, let's talk about the tents. The girls were camping in "cork" tents, which for a while I thought had something to do with their construction, but I found out afterwards that they were called cork tents because they were purchased with money that the Guides made from recycling wine corks (there is an Australian version of the Bag-a-Cork initiative that Ontario Guides are doing). The tents were made of canvas and HUGE - you could comfortably sleep six people inside. Like our canvas tents, these ones had no floor. They weren't ridge tents though - they were constructed more like a six-legged version of a dining shelter. The frames were made of square metal rods, all the same length (so, unlike the dining shelters we have at Woolsey, we didn't have to spend hours making sure the right poles were in the right spots - any pole section could be used at any spot in the frame. COOL.) There were no flies for the tents, which struck me as strange - but then again, this part of Australia sure doesn't get rain anything like what we get back home!

The girls were put into patrols, with each patrol sharing a sleeping tent, a food storage tent, and a cooking shelter. Jen and I found it very strange that most of the food (with the exception of meat and milk) was stored in tents. Some groups had eskies (coolers) for their food, others did not. We kept explaining to people how we couldn't ever do this in Ontario - between the bears, raccoons, skunks, and squirrels, we'd have no food left to eat if we stored it in this manner! But there are no animals here (except for the odd possum) who will go into tents after food, so this was the local practice. Jen and I couldn't do it. We had brought snacks with us for the train ride, and we stored them on top of the fridge in the hall. Come to think of it, I'm not sure that was much better - the hall's doors were left open all weekend long, including overnight, so the girls could go to the bathroom. So if there had been any marauding animals about, they could've gone in too!

Now, having said this, the only animals we had problems with at all during the weekend were the swans. I think we must have been camped on part of their feeding grounds or something, because they came over to check us out a few times. The shot above shows the dad investigating what we were eating for breakfast on Saturday morning. He was not afraid of us AT ALL and it took some serious convincing by a couple of us leaders to get him to move on his way. It is a little disconcerting having a large black bird walk straight into your campsite and start nibbling stuff off the tables. :-)

The girls did all of the food preparation and cooking, with the exception of the Friday dinner and Sunday lunch. Apparently the patrol leaders (Pathfinder-aged girls, for the most part) were each responsible for doing the shopping for their group. The leaders circulated among the patrols each meal... typically the patrols would invite a leader to share a meal with them. Since Jen and I were somewhat celebrities (being from Canada and all), we had many invites (yay!) and so we ate with a different patrol for each meal. Some of the patrols needed a little more help/supervision than others; I helped one group cook their Saturday dinner because they couldn't get their stove lit, but then the group I was with for Sunday breakfast had everything cooked and on the table and were only waiting for me to begin eating!

Most of the activities throughout the weekend were planned by the leaders, but each patrol was responsible for planning an activity to run for themselves for an hour on Saturday morning. Jen and I were invited to join a group who was going on a bush walk (nature walk), and so we followed them as they walked around the fields and the little lake. I included a photo of the lake on Facebook. Apparently we were lucky to see it with water in it - like most of the bodies of water here, this lake is seasonal and only has water some of the time. (The term "great lake" means something completely different in Australia than it does in Canada - here it means a lake that always has water in it!) There were lots of birds to be seen in and around the lake, including the swans, ducks, coots, and willy wagtails (little black and white birds whose tails are as long as their bodies... when they land, they wag their tails back and forth and they're so CUTE!). Then when we returned to the main camp, the senior Guides invited us over to try out their food challenges. These included digging through a bowl of flour with our tongues to fish out jelly beans (eeew, but I did it) and drinking a concoction made of fruit loops, lemon juice, milk, and pepper (which I politely declined).

The theme of the weekend was "Circus", and one of the highlights was having Sparky the Clown come to visit on Saturday afternoon. He entertained the girls for two hours with stories and magic tricks. He was GOOD. I also liked how he spent time telling the girls how he became a clown, and how much studying and reading he had to do in order to learn his tricks. Unsurprisingly, he was a hit with the kids. The camp also included all the typical things that we do at home - the girls made crafts (stilts), played games (including initiative games and wide games with us), and had a campfire. Although we weren't in charge of the campfire, we were invited to do a number of songs. I am working hard to infect all of Australia with the song "Today is Monday", which was so popular at Woolsey last summer. And Jen shared the traumatic story behind "Zum Gali Gali" and then had kids following her all weekend saying "llama, llama, llama, llama..." ha ha!

I continue to struggle to interpret Australian weather accurately. It was sunny and over 30 degrees every day, but at night the temperature dipped to 10C or below. I (stupidly) didn't pack my long underwear for this weekend, and I sure regretted it! We were sleeping on camp cots inside the tents, and so I was cold all over! I got up halfway through the first night and went into the hall, filled my Nalgene bottle with hot water, and took it back to bed, which helped a little bit. It was warmer the second night but not by much. I have learned my lesson. I need to pack clothes for 10 degrees colder AND warmer than what the weather is calling for!

The one real complaint I have from the weekend was the FLIES. Down here there is an expression about "doing the Aussie wave" and now I understand what that's all about! Australian blow flies are like nothing else on this planet. They LOVE moisture - and since there is precious little of it in the countryside, they cluster around everything that has it - including your eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. And they're persistent! The little buggers just don't give up. So imagine the worst possible black fly or mosquito day you've ever had out in the woods, and then multiply the number of flies by a factor of about 50, and that's what we were dealing with as far as the flies went this weekend. They were most active in the heat of the day and they were HORRIBLE at mealtimes. We prepared and ate meals (especially dinners) as fast as possible to keep the flies from crawling over everything. I had to constantly wave my hand over my dinner to keep the flies off - and had to inspect every bite of spaghetti to ensure I wasn't ingesting any extra protein. GROSS. We were assured that the flies were pretty bad for this time of the year, but that they actually would get worse as the summer wore on. ICK. At least they didn't bite, but still...! Once the sun went down the flies went away and we got some relief. Thank goodness!

Even with the flies though, it was a great weekend and a wonderful learning experience. We handed out Woolsey crests to all the girls, and Canadian flag crests to all the leaders. We were surprised to recieve thank-you gifts from the Chiltern Guiders at the end of the camp - really, we were just grateful that we'd been invited to go in the first place! But I now finally have a travel mug for the rest of my trip - a beautiful blue Guides Victoria mug, to be exact - and my collection of Australian patches continues to grow.

We were SO TIRED on the train ride home. Where the train out on Friday had been almost empty, the train home was full. Jen and I were sharing a four-seater arrangement (two seats facing front, two facing back) with two other guys and we sure felt squished! There was a swim team or something in our car and they were hyper and noisy the whole way home. It sure was a blessing to get off the train at Southern Cross station, transfer to our local train, and get home at last.

And I would've slept in this morning, too, except that Jen got a phone call at 7:30 this morning - for a job for tomorrow (GRRRR... why couldn't they have waited until 10am to do phone calls for tomorrow's jobs!)... and then when I went out of our room to go to the bathroom, I discovered that the toilet in the bathroom across the hall from our room was overflowing and there was water soaking into the hall carpet. So Jen and I did our good deed for the day and cleaned that all up. Not like there's a plunger in this house or anything. GAH.

Graffiti

This afternoon I went on a very strange (well, to me at least) adventure. My friend Carroll from Sydney had flown down to Melbourne for a business meeting, and she brought her son Evan with her. Evan's just finished his year 12 high school exams, so the trip was a bit of a break for him. So while Carroll was stuck in meetings all day, I showed Evan around the downtown. What did Evan want to see while he was here? Well, apparently Melbourne is a bit famous for its graffiti (or street art, if you want to get picky). So off we went, looking for street art.

Let me tell you, when you go into the visitor information centre here and tell them you're looking for places around the city to view heritage graffiti, you get really strange looks. :-) The first guy we dealt with was downright rude. I mean, what do I know about this stuff? The term "heritage graffiti" sounded good to me - but he instantly got on the defensive and informed us that graffiti was illegal (duh) and that we would get booked (arrested) for doing any. Like I would ever do graffiti. I just wanted to see some. (Grumble growl). Fortunately, the second lady we dealt with was much more helpful. This time I used the term "street art" instead of graffiti and she seemed to know exactly what we were looking for. So in a few minutes I had a map with a walking route plotted out, and Evan and I headed off to go exploring.

I spent more time down sketchy back alleys this afternoon than I ever would normally, but it was worthwhile. I must admit - I kinda like graffiti ART - such as the panel I've posted here. When done well, graffiti can bring meaning and character to the lost and forgotten places in our cityscapes. When traveling by train, I like looking at how the backs of buildings are often completely covered with graffiti - some of it very beautiful - and you'd never know it if you passed by those same buildings from the street side. Now having said that, I do NOT like how much "vandal" graffiti (for lack of a better term) there is around here. I've actually been meaning to complain about this for a while in my blog, but just hadn't gotten around to it.

Seems that the practice of "tagging" is huge here and just about every public place has graffiti on it. Evan was trying to explain to me that sometimes, these tags are an artist's practice sessions before they go on to do a full piece of art. I don't care. It's still vandalism and makes the city feel dirty somehow. I don't know if Melbourne has a gang problem like Toronto does, but all I can think about when I see these tags are the gang wars and turf fights of my hometown. If someone wants to graffiti the alleys and backs of buildings, go right ahead. But leave the bus stops, tram windows, garbage cans, and other public places clean, all right? At any rate, if you're interested in seeing more examples of Melbourne's back-alley graffiti, I've posted all my pics in my "Melbourne - Part Two" album.

After wandering through the alleys and lane ways for a couple of hours, Evan and I decided to go and check out some more 'formal' art at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. This turned out to be a small but funky (and free) museum on the far side of the Yarra River from the downtown core. The exhibits there consisted mostly of video installations - most of which (as usual) I didn't understand. However there were a few which I thought were really well done. In one, a man who was obviously stressed to the max with his car pounded his head repeatedly on the car's hood, screamed and yelled and punched the car - all of which was accompanied by an excellent, violent music score. Hard to describe but trust me it was good. I also really liked the installation titled "Doomed", where the artist had basically strung together all the disaster scenes from every disaster movie you can possibly think of into one long commentary about no matter how you look at things, the human race is doomed to destruction. Depressing, yes, but again, brilliantly done - especially the music. So once again I hoofed all over the city, but it was definitely an interesting day and has left me with much to think about.

Jen and I are off to go camping with a group of Girl Guides from Chiltern this weekend. This will include our first experience with the countryside trains, as it is a 3 1/2 hour train ride to the town of Chiltern - first thing tomorrow morning! We won't be getting back until quite late on Sunday - so you'll likely hear from me again on Monday morning (Australia time)...

The Melbourne Cup

Another new day, another new photo album on Facebook! Today Jen and I went to the world-famous Melbourne Cup horse races - and I took a whole pile of new pics, most of which can now be found in my "Melbourne Cup" album. I did my best, but let me tell you, it was so crowded and busy at the races that taking good photos was a real challenge!

The Melbourne Cup is THE horse race in Australia. It is often touted as "the race that stops a nation" - and that is true! Race day is a public holiday in the city of Melbourne. We understand that pretty much every work place in the country will have a Melbourne Cup party of some sort on this day, and much betting will take place. My friend Ruth up in Sydney even had to move the date of the assembly her class was presenting to their school, because it originally fell on Cup day and the parents complained that it would interfere with their party plans! This country takes its horse racing seriously. This year's races almost didn't go ahead - Australia has been suffering through a severe equine flu outbreak these past few months, and the officials had been warning for weeks that if the epidemic wasn't contained, they would have to cancel the entire spring racing carnival. Thankfully that didn't happen and so Jen and I got to participate in a truly Australian tradition!

Our day started early this morning, as we participated in a champagne breakfast with our house mates and friends. Everyone contributed something to the breakfast - we did crepes with fresh fruit and custard (basically the "April '89" from Cora's restaurants!). It was really neat to see everyone all dressed up with their hats and dresses and feathers. After breakfast we all headed out to the train station and caught the train to the race course. This event is so big that they run special event trains and trams to and from the race track all day long. It was easy to figure out which train platform we needed when we arrived at the North Melbourne station - platform 5 was filled with folks dressed just as fancy as we were!

When we arrived at Flemington, we joined the huge crowds who were all trying to get in through the gates. Trying to find a place to view the races from turned out to be quite the challenge... the place was completely packed. Finally we managed to find an empty bit of grass with a reasonable view of the Jumbotron (since there was no way we were going to get anywhere near the edge of the race track itself). Turns out we'd picked a good spot after all - we had planted ourselves right near the winners circle. This is where the horses are paraded before each race, and then the winning horse, jockey, and owners are presented with their prizes after each race. So I managed to snap a few good pics of this aspect of the day.

Really, the fashion at the Cup was just as important as the races! Everywhere we looked was a sea of colour, with both men and women dressed to the nines. After all the pain we went through to find the proper hats for the day, Jen and I were a little disappointed to find out that not every woman was wearing a hat - I think it was probably about 50/50 between hats and fascinators (the feathery bobbly things that can be seen in some of my pictures). I was quite glad that we'd decided to go the hat route, though - there was no shade at all and it was HOT! The people-watching opportunities were excellent - every time we turned around there was a new dress, a new suit, or a new hat. Not everybody came all dressed up, either - we spotted a group dressed as Santas, a bunch of guys in kilts, three men dressed as musketeers (complete with swords!), neon pink sparkly cowboy hats, wigs of every description, and even men in sailor uniforms. The crowd was huge (something like 102,000 people) and we spent a lot of time just watching people go by.

Of course, the day would not have been complete without a little betting! Jen and I did some exploring around the race track and found the betting pits - so of course we placed bets on two of the horses running in the Cup race. It's not like we had any idea whatsoever on how to place a bet or how to make a "good" bet... so we decided that we'd choose our horses based on our lucky numbers. Jen chose #9 and I chose #3. Unfortunately neither of our horses won the race, so we are no richer than we were before. But we have our tickets to prove that we bet during the Melbourne Cup!

It was a great day, although by late afternoon it was becoming rather obvious that the crowd had been partying hard. The booze had been flowing rather freely all day and folks were becoming rather... um... celebratory. So at about 5pm we decided it was time to head for home.

All I have to say is that I respect all those women who were at the races today in heels - I wore flat sandals and my feet were killing me by the end of the day! I can only imagine how much pain many other women will be in tomorrow morning. Between high-heeled shoes, sunburns, dehydration and hangovers, I wonder what percentage of the Melbourne work force will be calling in sick tomorrow? I, of course, will be sleeping in and enjoying the fact that I don't have to go ANYWHERE. :-)

Abseiling Weekend in Sydney

Jen and I are finally back from our weekend trip to Sydney to go abseiling. Things didn't go quite as we had originally planned, but we sure had a lot of fun and many adventures along the way! Most of the photos that go with this weekend's story can be found in my "Sydney Abseiling Weekend" album on Facebook.

We left Melbourne on Thursday evening. We had a nice, easy flight to Sydney and were picked up at the airport by our friend Carroll. She took us to Ruth's house, where we would be staying for the next few days. Jen and I hadn't eaten dinner yet (we basically flew over the dinner hour, and since we'd've had to pay to buy food on the plane, we just didn't eat), but fortunately Ruth had ordered a ton of Chinese food, so we helped her eat the leftovers. Yay!

Friday morning our plan was to go into Sydney and take Jen to the Opera House, since she hadn't seen it on her last visit to the city. We got off to a bit of a later start than we'd originally planned, because Jen and I distracted Ruth as she went to lock the house - and she accidentally locked her keys (including her car keys) inside the house! So we had to call Carroll and ask her to come over and unlock Ruth's house (Carroll lives about 10 minutes away) before we could go anywhere. Poor Ruth! The first morning all week that she didn't have a pre-school meeting, and she lost all her pre-school prep time anyway because of the silly door! Anyhow, after sorting out the whole key thing, Ruth dropped Jen and I off at the train station and we headed on our way.

Our first stop was to Paddy's Market, a big inner-city market much like the Victoria Market in Melbourne, but not as good. We were getting pretty desperate to find purses for the Melbourne Cup. Unfortunately, once more we were thwarted in our quest, and found no suitable purses at the Market. The weather was being uncooperative too - the day had started off cloudy and by the time we'd gotten to the Market, it was raining pretty steadily. When we were ready to leave the Market it was pouring, so instead we found ourselves some lunch and ate before venturing any further.

The next stop was the Sydney Opera House. Jen wanted to walk there from Paddy's - and let me tell you, it's a long way. We had somehow managed to not bring a map of downtown Sydney with us, so I was basically guessing on which way we needed to go. (I knew the general direction, just not the actual streets!) The nice thing about Sydney is that all throughout the tourist core, there are street corner maps that show you where you are - so once we finally found one of those, it was pretty simple to find our way to the Opera House. On our way there, we passed through Hyde Park. I'd eaten lunch there about a month ago when I went to the museum. The park has a beautiful fountain, which we walked around and enjoyed. We also came across several jacaranda trees - which really stand out at this time of year because they're completely covered in vibrant purple flowers!

After many, many city blocks, we finally made it to the Opera House and really only had time to snap a few photos before we had to head off again. We were meeting up with a Guider from Bondi for the afternoon. So it was back to Circular Quay to catch the train, and we were soon at Bondi Junction. Megan and her daughter Sharni picked us up and whisked us off to Bondi beach, where a sculpture festival was going on. We wandered the seaside trails around Bondi for a good couple of hours, enjoying all the different sculptures. They're all for sale and will be sold off at the end of the festival, with the money going to various local charities. We loved the sculptures. Apparently this goes on every year, with completely new sculptures each year.

In fact, Jen and I loved the sculptures so much, we decided that we should share 'em with everyone else! I've posted an album on Facebook called "Name That Sculpture Contest!". You guessed it - we're hoping that these sculptures inspire you as much as they inspired us! And yes, we will be awarding a prize to whomever most aptly names one of the sculptures in the photo gallery. The only trick, I guess, is that you need to be one of my Facebook friends in order to be able to leave comments under the pictures. So if you see something you really want to name, and can't do it on Facebook, leave the comment here in the blog. Just remember to tell me which sculpture you're talking about! The contest closes at 8pm on Monday, November 12th (Australia time) - so good luck!

After enjoying a smoothie (courtesy of Megan - thanks!) and the beach view at Bondi, we all piled back into her car and drove off to the local Guide hall, where Jen and I ran a campfire for the Bondi Guides. This was kinda neat. I've posted on my website about my visit to Australia, and invited Australian Guiders to email me and I'd see if I could manage to come and visit their units. Well, in this case, it was one of Megan's girls who emailed me - so of COURSE I had to go and meet her! We had lots of fun teaching new songs and singing old favourites, and at the end of the evening we all enjoyed some s'mores. (Raw, unfortunately, because we had to do the campfire indoors as the rain came back.) Megan was kind enough to drive Jen and I back to Ruth's house, halfway across the city. We got home pretty late and had to get up early on Saturday for the start of our abseiling adventure!

Saturday morning dawned cold, grey, and rainy. Wah! Definitely not the sort of weather to go abseiling in. But we packed up anyway and headed for the Blue Mountains, a 2-hour drive away, in the hopes that the weather might clear by the time we got there. No such luck! If anything, the weather got steadily worse as we climbed into the hills! We stopped in Blackheath for a morning snack and to decide what we would do for the day, since it was looking like abseiling was going to be impossible in this weather. There's a wonderful little cafe in Blackheath called The Wattle, which Ruth and Carroll pretty much always stop at when they're up in the mountains. There we met up with Helen, the last member of our abseiling group. We enjoyed some fresh-cut chips and hot chocolate (it was so cold and damp outside!) and decided that we definitely couldn't abseil in this weather. Instead, we decided we'd head to the Jenloan Caves, about a 45-minute drive away, and explore there for the days. My logic was that at least touring the caves would be indoors and out of the rain!

We also enjoyed being "sneaky Canadians" this morning - as we all got up to leave the cafe, Carroll went to go and pay the bill - only to discover that Jen had already paid it! Jen and I had agreed before the start of the trip that we were gonna pay for as many of the group meals as we could manage to, since Carroll and Ruth have been so kind to us already. So under the guise of going to the bathroom, Jen had already been to the counter and paid up. Carroll said she was going to "have her eye on us" for the rest of the trip. Hee hee hee...

The drive to the caves was beautiful. As we crossed over the major ridges of the Blue Mountains, the skies cleared and we had sunny weather. The last part of the drive reminded me very much of our travels in Tasmania - crazy windey hilly narrow roads, breathtaking views... but I wasn't prepared for the entrance to the caves! We drove right THROUGH a mountainside, into a huge cavern, and out the other side to where the parking lot and visitor's centre was! It was awesome.

I couldn't wait to go exploring, but first we had to deal with a cheeky parrot who arrived at our car about 1.5 seconds after we parked, obviously looking for food. He was cute but pretty darn persistent! We managed to snap a few photos, until another car pulled in and the parrot decided they were more interesting than we were. Then it was off to the ticket counter to book a tour. I hadn't realized that, unlike the cave we visited in Tasmania, this place was a huge complex of caves! There were something like 27 different tours we could sign up for - some of them really easy, some of them really challenging. We ended up visiting the Lucas Cave.

It was incredible. This cave alone was easily 10 times the size of the Hastings Caves in Tasmania, and it was only a fraction of the cave system at Jenloan! We walked into a chamber called the Cathedral, which was large enough you could build a respectable sized church inside it (both footprint wise and height wise). Yes, couples have gotten married there. There were these ancient iron ladders bolted into a couple of places that climbed way up into the heights of the cave. Apparently these were put in place almost 100 years ago so that the light bulbs could be changed - and the ladders are still in use today! We also went into a second cavern the size of a rugby field, and passed some dazzling calcite formations that were completely snow white and sparkly. Very, very cool. Definitely a good way to spend a so-called rainy day!

We ate lunch and decided to head back towards Katoomba, where we would be staying overnight, to see if the weather had improved at all. By the time we got to Mount York, where we were supposed to have gone abseiling, the weather had cleared nicely! We stopped there briefly so Ruth and Carroll could scout the anchor points, and so Jen and I could get a first glimpse at where we would be in the morning. Let me tell you, the first time I looked over the edge of the cliff, my heart nearly stopped! Then they explained to me that we weren't going all the way down the cliff; it was just that from our vantage point we couldn't see the ledge/slope where we would be stopping. That made me feel a wee bit better. :-)

There wasn't enough time to do any abseiling this afternoon, so we spent the rest of the day exploring the shops in Katoomba. Lots of nice little touristy spots, as expected, including a couple of really good antique/collectibles places, outfitters, and book stores. Jen and I were very well-behaved and didn't buy anything. We ate dinner at a charming little cafe where a live jjazz duet was playing, which created a nice ambiance. Once again Jen and I managed to sneak the bill away from Ruth and Carroll (this time literally from under their noses, ha ha!) and paid for dinner. Sneaky Canadians, indeed! We had no sooner returned to the hostel than the skies, which had been well-behaved most of the afternoon, opened up and it POURED rain. Thunder, lightning, the whole works. We went to bed fervently hoping that Sunday would be a better day. It would suck it we'd flown all the way up from Melbourne for nothing!

We were in luck! We woke up Sunday morning to chilly air, but bright blue skies and only little puffy clouds in the distance. So it wasn't long before we'd all piled into the cars and headed off again! We were hoping to go back to The Wattle for breakfast, but when we got there, it was completely full! We didn't want to waste time waiting for a table, so we went to another cafe just down the street - which was (suspiciously) completely empty. We found out why when we ordered our food. When the food came out, they had messed up all of our orders! Remember that we were the only people in the restaurant at the time. The waittress had to take our orders a second time and then head back to the kitchen to reshuffle the food. Grr. This morning was one of the few times I've been glad that we're not expected to tip here. When the food finally did arrive, I thought it was passable but not the best. I had a fairly typical "big" breakfast - 2 eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms, and toast. Cost - $15! Groan. I could get almost the same thing (minus the mushrooms, which weren't all that good anyway) in Ottawa for $3.99!

Enough complaining! We "let" Carroll and Ruth pay for breakfast (ha ha, and they thought that they'd slipped that one by us - sorry ladies, it was all part of the plan!), and headed back to Mount York. We were planning on doing today's abseiling in two parts. First, Jen and I would practice the techniques on a "bunny" rock (I thought it was funny that they use the same terminology in abseiling as we do in downhill skiing), and then we would abseil down the formation known as Snap, Crackle and Pop. When we got to the bunny rock, we found that a pair of guys was already there and set up. Carroll did some negotiating, and they agreed to let us abseil over the bunny rock on their rope setup, and meanwhile Carroll and Helen went off to set up our ropes for the bigger abseil. The guys would then use our ropes to go over Snap, Crackle, and Pop. This saved each group a good chunk of setup time.

Let me tell you, going over that first edge was hard - and the bunny rock wasn't really all that big! The hardest part for me was where you needed to lean backwards and let the rope take your weight. Or, as Carroll and Ruth liked to explain it, I needed to "trust the equipment". This was harder for me than for Jen. I swear she's fearless. Watching Jen go over the bunny rock made the whole thing look really easy, and I was eager to give it a try. But when it came my turn, I definitely struggled to balance myself properly. It got easier as the day progressed, though.

Once Ruth was satisfied with my performance on the bunny hill, we proceeded over to Snap, Crackle, and Pop. This turned out to be a 25m-odd drop straight down the side of a cliff. The photos I took at this spot make the drop look a lot bigger than it actually was... but trust me, it was long enough for me for my first time! It was interesting watching Ruth, Carroll and Helen set up... Jen and I couldn't exactly help, since we had no idea what they were doing, and it was an odd sensation to be sitting on the sidelines instead of taking charge or at least helping out. Carroll showed us how they'd anchored the abseiling rope at two different spots on various trees, and explained all about the safety lines that she and Helen would be wearing as our instructors etc. We would be going over this edge using a top belay system, which basically meant that along with the abseiling rope that we would control ourselves, we'd also be attached to a belay rope that Carroll would control from the top of the cliff. That way, if we did let go of the rope, we still wouldn't fall anywhere because the belay rope would lock in place immediately. Very cool.

Once again, Jen went first - which was just fine by me! I was surprised by how quickly she was over the edge and down - and all I could hear from the bottom of the cliff was "That was the coolest thing EVER! Becky, get your butt down here!" Ha ha! Then it was my turn to try it. Carroll was great - she explained all the different bits that were attached to me and how they worked, and went over all the safety checkpoints before she let me go near the edge. My biggest problem turned out to be the take-off, because I had to crouch with my knees bent (ick) at an awkward angle until I was right out over the edge of the cliff. And again, that whole "trusting the equipment" thing was really hard! But to my surprise, once I was over and sitting in the right position, the rest of the descent was really pretty easy! Well, maybe except for the landing - there was a tree growing right at the landing point, and you couldn't see it until you basically landed with your back against it at the bottom of the cliff! Ruth was there waiting at the bottom to help me get all untied, and then after a brief rest, I hoofed it up the path to the top to do it again!

I think I went over the edge 4 times in total, and it definitely got easier each time. Well, except for the run where Carroll decided to show Jen (who was back up at the top, waiting her turn) what would happen if the belay rope was locked in place. So there I am, halfway down the cliff and dangling in midair, and suddenly I couldn't descend anymore! I didn't know that the belay line had been locked - and neither did Ruth! She kept calling up to me to try adjusting my hand on the descender etc. to get the abseiling rope to move, but nothing was working! It wasn't until Carroll called down from the top of the cliff that she had locked the belay line that we realized what was going on. Ha ha! Once Carroll unlocked the belay, I could move again, and made my way to the bottom.

By then, it was time to stop for lunch, and as we sat there eating by our rope set-up, another group approached us, wanting to set up and go over the edge. The protocols here are fairly clear. We were already set up and obviously using this particular launching point, so they should have gone on somewhere else. Well, they did move a little bit down the rock face, but the guy anchored his line right over our anchor point - and right over our ropes - which is a BIG no-no. He also wasn't anchoring his ropes properly and clearly had no idea what he was doing. Carroll and Ruth explained to us that these guys had probably gone climbing or abseiling in an indoor gym and then figured they were ready for the real thing - but the problem is that the set-ups and anchor systems are completely different. Carroll and Ruth were becoming more and more concerned that these guys were going to do something dangerous and either get hurt or killed (or hurt/kill one of us if we stayed there to play during the afternoon), so we made the decision that it was time to pack up and head out.

So all in all, we only did about half the abseiling we'd originally hoped to do, but it was still an awesome weekend. I think it's fair to say that I have gotten over (most) of my fears to do with this sport, and I'm looking forward to trying it again! We're hoping to plan another weekend trip later in the year, so we can go abseiling down a place called the Malacia (sp?) Walls. This would be an all-day abseil, where we start at the top of the canyon wall and travel all the way down to the bottom in about 6 stages. COOL.

Our trip back to Melbourne came all too soon! This morning we got up at 5:30 and were out the door by 5:50 to head to the airport. The flight itself was fine, but the wait for the bus here in Melbourne was crappy. Once again, let me complain about the Melbourne public transit system and the lack of an all-city bus route map. Grrr. Suffice it to say it took us over an hour to catch a bus, and then a bus/tram/bus transfer to get us home again. When we landed here this morning it was only 11C outside (I know you're all feeling sympathetic to our plight!), so I was absolutely FREEZING by the time we got home! Jen and I basically got into our room, shut the door, and collapsed on our beds for a nap!

What an awesome weekend. Thanks so much to Ruth, Carroll, and Helen, for without you wonderful ladies, our adventures would not have been possible. I know I speak for Jen as well when I say that we're really looking forward to abseiling with you again later on this year!