At Last a kangaroo

We've been here seven months (my, how time flies when you're having fun, and we definitely are) and I hadn't seen a single kangaroo. I realise that this is because there are no kangaroos in either our apartment or at my workplace, and those are the only two places I go. That has now been rectified.

For my birthday Leslie booked us on a daytrip to an Australian animal sanctuary. It was a very touristy thing to do - we were the only ones on the bus who lived in Melbourne. But without a car, it seemed the best way to get around. In the morning we drove to a nearby mountain range. Melbourne is in a fantastic location - an hour's drive brings you to the heart of wine country and beautiful vineyards or to an awesome mountain range.

In the mountains we stopped for morning tea at a nature reserve where wild cockatoos, gala birds and brightly coloured red-and-blue birds (I don't know what they're called) are everywhere. Tourists feed them every day from tours such as ours (the bus drivers all bring birdseed along), so they're quite tame. I'm not a big fan of birds, but these were beautiful, it must be said, and it was pretty cool to be surrounded by them. I doubt the birds ever have to forage for themselves, as tour buses just show up all day long with birdseed for them.

We then went on a steam train ride through the mountains. The train is an early 20th-century train that a group of volunteers has restored. I rode sitting in the window with my legs dangling out of the carriage, as did many passengers. It was a neat, old-fashioned thing to do. Apparently all Melbourne children have been on this train at some point or other, as it's a popular thing for families and school trips.

We stopped at a winery for lunch. The vines weren't green yet, but the food was excellent and the wine was as well. We tasted some excellent ones.

In the afternoon we went to the animal sanctuary, and there I finally saw a kangaroo. Quite a few kangaroos, actually. Kangaroos are funny looking animals - they have such a strange construction. They are not a new design, though, some dinosaurs were constructed in the same sort of way, though I don't know if they used their tails as third legs. The sanctuary had lots of them, smaller grey kangaroos and big red ones.

We also saw koalas, which were asleep when we arrived but perked up later to get fed, an echidna, a platypus, Tasmanian devils (which are ugly little beasts) and all manner of Australian birds.

They did a birds of prey show where the raptors were free-flying, but most of them didn't behave and wouldn't fly where they were supposed to. They recovered them all eventually, though, and it was a fun show.

Leslie has a new job. He's working as a photographer working for a group of event photographers. His first day was today, and he says it went really well.

Boats, bats and a birthday barbeque bash

Last weekend we went out with some friends to a park in Melbourne to see flying foxes, which are giant bats. I have to admit, I was skeptical about seeing them, since it was the middle of the day. We walked along the river for a while, and the park itself is very beautiful. It felt like we were in the middle of the country, though the buildings of Melbourne were close, just out of sight. We came upon the flying fox colony, and boy, was I wrong. There were hundreds of them sleeping upside down in the trees and dozens more flying around. I don't know why they were awake during the day, but they swooped in waves. When they landed on the trees, they flipped upside down and wrapped themselves in their wings. It was really neat.



After photographing the bats for a while we strolled back the way we'd come, walking along the river. We eventually came to a boathouse and cafe area, and there were lots of people having picnics. It was Australian Father's Day, so we there were tons of people in the park. Lots of people were playing Frisbee and footy, and lots were renting rowboats, canoes and kayaks and taking to the river. We didn't have a Frisbee, and there was a long queue to rent a boat, so we just sat on the grass in the sunshine for a while. We resolved to come back the next week.



We went back yesterday, and since it wasn't Father's Day, it was much less crowded. Melbourne has a bunch of gas barbeques set up in public parks, and they're all free to use. The city pays for the gas, and you can use it whenever you want and clean it when you're done. We stopped off at the market on our way to the park and picked up hamburgers, sausages and potato salad. We had a right great barbeque when we got there. Leslie may be right - food may indeed taste better outside. We then rented a rowboat (there was no queue this time) and rowed on the river. Our goal was to row up to where the bats were and get closer pictures of them (they live accross the river from where we were last week, roosting in trees on a private golf course), but that proved to be too far. Turns out it's faster to walk than to row upstream. Our time was running out, so we just turned the boat around and rowed back to the boathouse. Our friend Ryan was an excellent rower, but Leslie and I couldn't seem to make the thing go in a straight line - when we were at the helm it was mostly going in circles and travelling in a sort of corkscrew motion. To be honest, though, the boys were very gracious and didn't make me row - I just tried it out to see how hard it was. It was my birthday, so I declared that anyone whose birthday it was shouldn't have to row. Like good sports, they accepted this.



When we landed we played Frisbee for a while, then took off to get to another party. A friend was having a barbeque on the other side of the city, so we trekked out there. It was a fun party, with people playing guitar and wonderful food. It was a very barbeque-heavy day.



It's exciting; I've never had a spring birthday before. It's rarely warm enough to go boating and play outside on my birthday, as it's the beginning of fall, and even if it is warm, it's the end of summer so no one has that spring energy and desire to spend as much time as possible outdoors. I like having a spring birthday - it's a wonderful time of year.

It is supposed to get colder this week (it was 20 degrees and above last week), but even though it's dropping to 15 or so, I still think Melburnians have nothing to complain about when they complain about the weather. It's already spring weather, and last week was beautiful and warm. We had two or three weeks of quite cold weather, but it was never too cold to ride to work, never so cold it was miserable, never so cold you needed anything more than a coat.

Two weeks ago we also saw an eclipse. It was neat - I don't think I've ever seen one before. The moon turned a dusky orange colour, though it looks red in the pictures.