Week One:
We began our adventure in the Southeast State of Victoria, beginning in Melbourne where I flew into after a 15 hour flight from Los Angeles.
Many, many Thanks to Adele Begovich and son Paul, who was a wonderful hostess and tour guide. (unfortunately Dave had to stay in Gladstone and work). They have a beautiful home in the small town of Healesville; an hour and a half northeast of Melbourne.
waiting for twilight when the little guys come ashore. It was well worth the wait; they are so darn cute! Roy was excited to add his first penguin to his Aussie bird list :) No flash photos were allowed, so thank Wikipedia for the above picture.
Many, many Thanks to Adele Begovich and son Paul, who was a wonderful hostess and tour guide. (unfortunately Dave had to stay in Gladstone and work). They have a beautiful home in the small town of Healesville; an hour and a half northeast of Melbourne.Our first stop was to head South to Phillip Island to see the nightly emergence of the 'Little Penguins' from the ocean to waddle ashore to find their nests up in the low brush. They are the smallest species of penguins - only about 13' tall. Unfortunately the Woodward curse is alive and well Down Under so we got a little wet
waiting for twilight when the little guys come ashore. It was well worth the wait; they are so darn cute! Roy was excited to add his first penguin to his Aussie bird list :) No flash photos were allowed, so thank Wikipedia for the above picture.Another day Adele drove us an hour to visit the town of Marysville; which was very humbling. 45 people died there when the Murrindindi brushfire in Feb 2009 came too fast and there was no way to get out. 90% of the town's building were destroyed. The town is slowly rebuilding; we especially enjoyed Bruno's restored Art & Sculpture garden there.
We toured the beautiful city of Melbourne which, by the way, the Aussies pronounce "Mel-bun".
Birdwatcher Roy was thrilled to see the second species of Lyrebird found in Australia. We had been hiking around a National Forest, actually quite close to Adele's house, hoping to see it; had almost given up and were walking back to the car and what comes walking down the
road towards us? Not one, but two, very noisy beautiful Lyrebirds! We were so amazed and awed with their little show that I forgot to take a picture! darn it!! (thank you again Wikipedia)
We bid farewell to Adele and headed West to drive The Great Ocean Road along the South
eastern coast. Built by soldiers returning from the Great War (World War I), it is 243 km (151 miles) long and probably most noted for the limestone "stacks"formations called The Twelve Apostles.
We were thrilled to see some wild koalas near the scenic Cape Otway LightStation.
We turned northeast and enjoyed a day in Ballarat learning about the
Australian Gold Rush beginning in 1851.
They found some amazingly large gold nuggets in the state of Victoria!
We spent 3 delightful days in the small village of Bright on the edge of beautiful Snowy Mountains. Now remember, I had left Houston in Springtime and crossed the equator to find Fall in Australia.
We were very surprised to find so many
deciduous trees in Victoria; sometimes we had to remind ourselves we weren't in New England. Roy enjoyed a day of fishing.
Driving through the Snowy Mountains was absolutely fantastic! (as in the movie - The Man from Snowy River) and look what we found? There is some controversy if the poem written by "Banjo"
Patterson, was based on Jack Riley or a compilation of several local bush riders. Fun to see nevertheless.
Look was we saw crossing the road? It's a wombat! isn't he fantastic? Wombats are marsupials herbivores that dig extensive burrows. Have I mentioned we haven't seen a kangaroo yet? Contrary to popular belief, they are not as easily seen as we non-Australians might think.
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