Saturday, March 11th
We flew in Sydney for a brief stay but it was just long enough to visit Peggy and Dick on their Oz Sojourn. Had a great ( brief ) visit / a great dinner / and a nice surprise firework show. Nice of Sydney to organize that for us !
We drove to Ulurro and walked around portions of it. Photos are forbidden in some areas. Most of these pictures are from other areas near Ulurro. Very interesting hearing the native stories about the area. Most of this area is very stark but I was surprised to see how much was growing in some places. Very impressive / very ancient. Clearly very significant. Very hot.
Australia is such an interesting place partly because it contains such variety. Alice Spring was much nice than I expected. It has been wet this year so it was much greener than I expected. Quite a nice little town. Everyone is extremely friendly but it was VERY hot - which is hard for me.
Road Scholar doens't give you much down time so I wasn't able to maintain a journel as we went. I took pictures but cannot add much context to them. That is unfortunate because our expert local guide was EXTREMELY knowledgeable about the Indigeonous culture and way of life.
He also pointed out the very slow race between the Desert Oak and the Acacia - both native trees.
The Desert Oak spreads with seeds that are carried by the wind. So they spread widely. They grow quickly when there is rain. They grow narrow and straight until their roots reach the underground water when they branch out horizontally and get thicker. When the rains stop, the younger trees mostly die. The Desert Oak also makes the ground acidic.
The Acadia on the other hand drops its seeds directly to teh ground so they tend to grow in clumps. They grow slower and require alcaline soil. But they survive long periods with low rain better than the Desert Oak.
So if you commonly see these trees near each other competing for the same area. If you are familiar with the area, you can see the history of the weather.
Nature Park -
the playground:
Some animals we saw there:
Tuesday, Mar 7th - last night in Melbourne
I am enjoying this trip a lot but I am totally exhausted every night. We walk at least 4 - 5 miles every day. And the schedule is just packed ! I have been enjoying the 'expert talks' very much. I am learning so much.
Melbourne is a fantastic city and I am very glad we got to spend some time here. I feel pretty comfortable getting around here now and there is a lot to see and do. We have just scratched the surface, of course. But I feel like I could easily adapt to being here for a good long time if I ever needed to do that.
The people are very friendly and laid back. I love the ethnic diversity. Quite a mix of people. But you don't get the 'rush / rush / rush' coolness of NYC. The food has been excellent. The transportation is pretty easy ( so far ).
Today we started with an expert talking to us about Aboriginal Art. She walked us through a couple of paintings and told us some history. We will learn a lot more about this when we get to Alice Springs and Uluru, of course. We also went to the Australian National Art Museum which has a nice collection of Aboriginal Art.
Our hotel is quite close to the Melbourne Library so we got a very quick tour of that as well. Libraries are among my favorite places so that was a real treat. This one was modelled a little on the U.S. Library of Congress - which is one of my favorite places in the whole world. I got to spend some extra time there while Bill ran some errands so that made me very happy.
We ended with dinner in China Town. It was another fantastic meal.
Kangaroo Photos for Arthur
Hi, sweetheart! We saw two different kinds of kangaroos at the nature preserve. One was the 'gray kangaroo'. They are bigger and have mostly gray fur. The males have a little bit of reddish fur, too. Their faces kind of look a little bit like donkeys.
We also saw a smaller kind of kangaroo that normally lives on 'kangaroo island'. Their faces look more like the deer we have. They are a little bit browner. They are also not as afraid of people. There are no predators on their island so they aren't as likely to be afraid of people or other animals.
Monday, March 6th - Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary
We spent a chunk of today at a marvelous wildlife sanctuary. I like the way they run it: the animals are pretty much free to roam. The fences keep the people out of areas they shouldn't go. SO many interesting animals. I wish we had more time there as we certainly did not see all that was there.
The emus were very curious and friendly.
The Koala was sleepy but did wake up for a bit to take a bite of food while we were watching.
Kangaroos just lazing around and keeping an eye on us. They clearly owned the place.
