Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Heading West...

ONLY 5 WEEKS TO GO!!!!!!

Making tutu's!

We were warmly welcomed back to Caroline and Richard’s house in Melbourne and had arrived in time to celebrate Stuart’s god-daughter’s third birthday! Happy Birthday Elsie!! The whole week was pretty much spent playing with the girls - Elsie (3) & Emily (1). We went to Elsie’s kiddie party at the Community Garden CERES, watched her Fairy Dancing concert, had a surprise party at the local park for Uncle Stuart and a second family birthday party for Elsie at a miniature train park. Did I mention I also spent nearly 12 hours straight sewing pink and red ‘sticky out’ tutu’s for the girls on my last day in Melbourne! I miss my sewing machine and loved every minute of it! The girls loved them and danced around the kitchen wearing them non-stop until we left! Since leaving Melbourne, Caroline has sent us photographs of the girls going shopping – both wearing their tutu’s!

Behind the scenes Stuart was busy getting the car it’s 100,000km service and having the zipper repaired on the camper as we had actually worn out the zipper slider! Stuart had to argue a little to get it fixed under warranty, as CUB said the zips don’t wear out and it must have been abused! But CUB settled to fix it anyway out of good faith. Whatever! Its fixed now, so we are happy!

I also caught up with my wonderful friends Brenda, Amanda, Elise and Kirsty, along with a little retail therapy! When in Melbourne...

At the 12 Apostles...
Our exit route of Victoria was via the Great Ocean Road, but unfortunately our planned side trip to the Grampians was cancelled as the majority of the park was still closed due to previous flood damage. The Great Ocean Road was pretty wet and FREEZING cold as well, but we did our best to grit our teeth and get out of the car and explore anyway! The 12 Apostles were definitely worth it but we passed on the Otway Lighthouse, which claimed to be ‘the most significant lighthouse in Australia’ and was charging $17.50 per person to even get close enough to look at it! Fair enough to do a guided tour, but we just wanted to see the coastline where it stands! Still, the drive out there was worth it though, as we met some very cute koalas on the roadside! We also had some interesting walks along the beaches of the Shipwreck Coast, locating some of the anchors from ships that have been wrecked on this notorious stretch of coast.
On one of our walks, Stuart found a juvenile little Blue Penguin, who had crawled out of the pounding surf alive but exhausted and shivering in the freezing wind. Given it was low tide, he would have ended up back in the water soon after, so Stuart picked the little one up and relocated him just up the beach behind a dry rock just above the high tide mark. He seemed to pick up just being out of the wind, and thanked Stuart with a snap at his fingers! We left hoping that he survived the night and got back to the ocean for a feed.

For a while our plans have included some kayaking on the Glenelg River on the border of Vic and SA. We headed to the border in some pretty cold weather, unsure if we would end up on the water, but we set up camp anyway. We ended the day rugged up with multiple blankets on the bed and woke up to sun, lots and lots of glorious sun! And a beautiful 33 degree day! I think we were so relieved that we just laid about all day reading and soaking up the warmth. It wasn’t until after dinner and the sun was setting that I finally got into my kayak and went for a beautiful warm sunset paddle. In a singlet and shorts! Stuart was happy enough playing with his camera on the jetty!

Our newfound sun and warmth stayed with us as we crossed the border and headed to the World Heritage Area of the Naracoorte Fossil Caves in South Australia. We were really impressed with the underground bed of fossils found in the limestone caves. The story was that during the time of the megafauna animals would fall down a long narrow hole in the ground called a solution pipe, formed by water pooling and dissolving the limestone below. The animals became trapped in the cave and died. The excavated fossil bed we saw on our tour was about a 10m x 5m area, but the remaining unexcavated area was huge, around 60m x 20m, and down to a depth of 4m according to our guide. Who know’s what they’ll find in future excavations, as they have already identified over 100 different species from what they have dug! It has revealed two entire skeletons of extinct megafauna, one a giant relative of the wombat and the other a giant leaf eating kangaroo. They have also discovered another 42 species of kangaroo which do not exist today. Apart from the fossils the limestone formations within the cave were also very beautiful. As we left our cave tour we were delighted to find the weather still warm and sunny! (It’s a novelty to us! Not like you Perth-ians).

However...we woke up this morning to grey clouds and as we left the caves area it started raining, and if you have seen the weather report, it hasn’t stopped since! We had been planning a three day stopover in the Coorong National Park, but we drove through the park to find all the campsites wet, muddy, windy and swarming with mosquitoes! Some of the tracks were pretty slippery, with the car and trailer sliding around sideways! Yes I was freaking, and yes Stuart was grinning!! The Coorong is a significant pelican breeding site and was the filming location for the movie ‘Storm Boy’. We still saw lots of pelicans looking majestic as they soared in formation over the inland lagoon, and fishing in the shallows, but disappointingly we decided a change of plan was in order.

So after an extra long day driving in the increasingly heavy rain, we are holed up in a cabin right on the bank of a very swollen Murray River. And we are sitting here shaking our heads in disbelief because the news just reported widespread flash flooding in Adelaide and surrounding areas!

C’est la vie

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