Day 17 & 18 - Melbourne - The Comp Day 2 and Exploring The City

The Girls were going through much the same routine as yesterday with Kerrie taking unenviable job of making sure they were where they needed to be and in what they needed to be in.  This left Tim and I to duck out of all responsibilities and go exploring Melbourne.

I last lived in Melbourne when I was in the Army in 1989 (or somewhere around there).  I used to ride into the city, either by bike or train and go wandering around looking into all the book shops and finding those back alley places that sell those really odd things (no not that type of thing....). I would spend hours in some of those shops, before spending a few hours at the movies or in the library.

Tim and I spent Sunday exploring and were joined by Kerrie and the girls on Monday.  Tim and I drove in and on Monday we court the city circle team from harbour land. 

The kids were fascinated but he tram, but after being squeezed in with many other people and being thrown around at every stop they decided that there may be better ways to travel.  

The State Library

The state library is one of those places that is a bit of a "shrine" to me.  Puppa used to demonstrate at the planetarium that was here when the building was the home of the museum. I've spent a lot of time in this building.   

The kids was rather over awed by the library, Tim found the La Trobe reading room especially oppressive. Too quiet. 

We went on to look at some of the displays. There was a history of Victoria expressed in books and other objects. The collection of matches and match boxes was especially interesting too the kids. The collection included a display of Ned Kelly's armour.  On Saturday Tim spent quite some time reading the information about the Kelly gang. 

Tim challenged me to a game of chess on the big set in the kids room. Much to my shame he managed to beat me.  I think I need to be a little more careful when playing him next time. 

Lunch

On Saturday Tim was a bit of a chicken when it came to lunch. He demanded we have something normal. On Sunday I got the chance to be a bit more adventurous. I had a Japanese street food that consisted of an egg coated fried batter wrapped around meat and veg, somewhat like a cross between a wrap and a spring roll. Really nice.  The girls had Chinese and Tom had a rather unsatisfactory pie.  

China Town

Our wander through China town found it less interesting than I remember it. I think the Chinese community have expanded to enrich the rest of the city, resulting in China Town having less of a dramatic contrast. There are some interesting places here, but you have to look for them. 

Fitzroy Gardens

These gardens are built for exploration. They are so old and there are so many little hidden spots here to find. Even on a overcast autum day they were impressive. 

The kids enjoyed the fairy tree and the miniature Tudor Village. Sarah loved the Fairies. Finding a bunch of Book Crossing books somebody had left at the fairy tree was the icing on the cake.  I think we will see if we can do something with Book Crossing when we get home.  We certainly have enough books to release. 

The Rest

There is so much of this stuff hidden around corners in this place, you could spend ages just wandering around sticking your nose into places and looking for the odd and interesting. 

We found a curiosity shop filled with skeletons and other scientific stuff like stuffed birds and butterflies. 

The Royal Arcade is home to not only Gog and Magog, but a four tune teller who could be strength out of Harry Potter and a shop filled with babushka dolls. 

On our way in for dinner we found we had parked almost out the front of Critica Hit, a shop filled with sci fi, fantasy and gaming paraphnaila. It took a lot of self control to be able to walk out of there without at least a Dr Who Tardis tea pot. 

Dinner

Meals are always a difficult problem for us. This is not made any easier when presented with the number of options for food that are in Melbourne. We ended up stepping out of our comfort zone and eating at a Japanese cafe. I had a yummy ramen soup, the others having various other dishes.  We could have got half the food and shared it and still been full. 

The time in Melbourne City turned out to be a bit of an unexpected highlight for me. A lot of nostalgia and the excitement of how much the place has changed kept it interesting.  There is so much we did not get to, we would need at least a wee (and a second mortgage) to see it all. Over all I think we did well. 

The kids are happy to leave Melbourne and its fickle weather behind. They had a great comp but it is time to move on. 

Day 16 - Melbourne - The Comp - Day 1

Today was spent at the first day of the Champion of Champions Championship.

This was a bit of an eye opener.  So many people, so many kids and so much organisation.

Nine stages at once

Sarah - In the middle

Emily - Pointing nicely

Emily getting off the ground

I have no idea how they manage to pull something like this off with so few problems.  In fact I would guess that there were no real problems that did not start with a kid not being where they were supposed to be.  The main reason the kids were not where they were supposed to be was just down to the limitations of the PA system in the centre.  I was impressed.  The volunteers were very helpful and had a handful trying to heard some quiet young kids around. 

I'll leave the kids and Kerrie to tell about the comp, but must say I'm proud and impressed at how they performed and got themselves organised.  Great kids. Love them very much.  Tim especially deserves a great pat on the back for putting up with almost ten hours of piping and dancing. 

See if you can find Sarah

Tomorrow Tim and I have the day off and will see about exploring the city. 

Day 15 - Melbourne

And the forecast for today is:  Rain, Wind, Sun, Wind, Cold, Sun with the distinct chance of frozen water falling from the sky.

Lets try that again.

The forecast for today is:   Melbourne weather....  four seasons in one day.

Today started at approximately  11pm last night, when a caravan arrived in the site next to ours.  About an hour later they had finished backing, moving forward, sideways and for all I could tell upwards to get there van appropriately sited, accompanied at the top of the voice with "yeah, just another foot, nah, I think it should go over a bit,  etc....  You get the picture.

The morning continued with a number of convoys of people proceeding to the bathrooms.  Apparently this requires vocal evocation at a high volume in a number of languages prior to use, not sure why, but evidence shows this is required. Later in the day I tried out the loud vocalisation prior to usage of the bathroom myself, but it did not seem to have any impact on efficiency.  I will continue my study of this behaviour tonight and report on any further findings. It is possible I'll have to consult with one of the people to ascertain the exact requirement for the vocalisation.

Later in the morning (about 4am) we were given further examples of loud vocalisation from a pair of inhabitants of the caravan two down, who were accompanied by the rumble of a diesel engine as they attempted to hitch up a caravan.  It will be noted that the addition of the diesel engine required the introduction of a light show in the form of headlights being shone into every available accommodation.  I have a feeling that this event was of the nature of a teaching event, as the participants appear to be inexperienced in hitching caravans and the usage of both headlight and ignition switches to reduce the impact of the event on other residents. The event lasted 60 minutes.  One can only hope that when this event plays out again at another venue, the players have gained enough experience to understand that the usage of engine and headlights have little benefit when raising stabilisers and jockey wheels (and what ever else took 60 minutes to complete).

Following the last event, we were feeling a little "hot" and decided that retiring to the showers would be the best use of time.   I believe Kerrie spent quite some time enjoying the hot water, whilst I divested myself of the fourteen days of facial hair growth that was starting to generate a degree of irritation.

In comparison to the previous events, the remainder of the day proved to be relatively quite.  The small matter of navigational embarrassment whilst attempting to locate Luna Park was quickly resolved by referring to a GPS.

 

 Other points of interest were also located with no difficulty if one discounts the interesting method of the motor vehicle usage the people of Melbourne seem to have taken on over the last ten years. Driving in Melbourne is not something that can safely be taken on without prior reference to both a calendar and a clock.  Most road directions, including speed and direction restrictions seem to be closely related to the movement of the sun and the moon.  I have a theory that the Victorian RTA is actually a front for a primitive Central American religion who practice the ritual sacrifice of interstate tourists.

This afternoon was taken up with registering the girls into the competition.  On completion it was discovered that counter to the RTA's reliance on actuate timing the competition organisers places great store on the complete absence of timings, including even a start time to tomorrows events.  On enquiry some estimates of a start time were generated (maybe by the examination of a sheep's liver?).

Tim and I will be accompanying the girls to the competition (sheep's liver and orrery in hand) to cheer them on and ensure the RTA is not lying in wait.

We've decided to delay our departure from Melbourne for 24 hours to further study the interesting contrasts of reliance and lack of reliance on celestial motions and to allow the children to experience the unique methods of personal transport utilised in this fair (rainy, windy, sunny, cold, warm) city.

Warning:  The accuracy of the above account must not be relied upon.  The writer is suffering from some degree of sleep deprivation and may be indeed hallucinating.

Day 14 - Ballarat to Melbourne

Dropped into sovereign hill again this morning.  A chance to visit those displays we missed.  Then off to a caravan park in Coburg in Melbourne. 

It's the caravan parks that really allow me to appreciate free camps. I suppose I'm really missing the open spaces and lack of people of a bush site as well.  I suppose you can't complain about a caravan park in inner Melbourne, what else would you expect.  We will be here till Monday. We will just have make sure we spend as much time away as possible.  Should not be hard. Melbourne does not lack in places to spend time. 

Tomorrow is registration for the comp and getting the costumes ironed and sorted, then some time for sight seeing. 

Day 13 - Ballarat - Sovereign Hill

Day 12 - Mt Gambier to Smythesdale near Ballarat

After a final visit to Grandpa, we drove towards Ballarat through lots of pine plantations and past the Grampians. We are going to have to come and send more time here.

We're spending tonight at a free (donation) camp about 13 km from Ballarat. Got to love these spots. 

Day 11 - Mt Gambier

I'll leave the story of our visit to Gradpa Mt Gamber to Kerrie and the kids. It was quite emotional for all of them. Grandpa spent a lot of time with the kids talking about a lot of things. 

Whilst in mt Gamber we went to a video presentation at the town hall about the volcanos and geology in the area.  I think you could spend a lot of time in the area looking at the different geology. 

Day 10 - Naracourte to Mt Gambier

Day 9 - Naracourte - under the Earth

Today is the big caving adventure.

Today we visited three caves at Naracourte.  A self guided exploration of the wet cave, a guided tour of the Fossil cave

, containing fossils of megafauna and a cave adventure crawling through the stick or tomato cave. 

The adventure cave was amazing. Crawling throw spaces barley large enough for your head, having to move by flexing your shoulders and pushing with your toes. The kids were great, I don't know that I could have done such a thing at that age. 

Day 8 - Rupanyup to Naracourte.

Well we are here. 

The night at the Rupanyup camp was brilliant.  There was even a hot shower for $1 for 5 min hit water.  Hard standing for the vans. 

The trip to Naracourte was fairly uneventful if very windy. The fuel consumption rose to somewhere around 14.4 l/100km. 

We're now camped at the Naracourte caves national park. 

Day 7 - Narranderra to Echuca and beyond to ...

It's raining, and muddy, and cold ( at least out side)

We can pack up in the rain without getting everything completely soaked. Well that is apart from us who are cold wet and muddy.   We're treating the guys with a purchased  breakfast. 

Time passes...

Well breakfast consisted of 3 snags 2 eggs and a tomato and chips. $9.50. Kerrie shared with Sarah. This was at a petrol station in Jerilderie. 

The trip to the border was uneventable. The trip from the boarder to Echuca was a little less so. 

I am sorry to that the population of Macropus giganteus has been reduced. 

There was a foggy drizzle and the driver glanced away at just the wrong time.  The co-driver called a warning just before the victim impacted the front drivers side wheel. The trailing wheels proceeded over the victim.  

We pulled over to assess damage as a police car who had been following us and had a front seat for the show stopped to clear the road. We checked the car and saw no damage (phew). The police pulled up to check how we were and reported the victim was killed on impact. The police were great. They had no issues and were understanding. They were concerned about any damage and our well being. Love Victorian cops. 

So on into Echuca, taking more care to not be distracted.  Sarah was a little sad, but understood how these things can happen. 

The rain continued in Echuca. There were few visitors and understandingly the wood turner was doing some housekeeping, not turning. We were a little disappointed but we took the opertunity to visit Kerries cousin Bobby. She walks in a pharmacy and we took the opertunity to do some shopping whilst visiting.  

We proceeded, taking the side roads towards Horsham.

We went through;

Logan

St Arnaud - great display in the visitors centre. Sarah loves the diararamas. 

Rupanyup -we are camped at a brilliant community supported camp here.  $10 for the night with toilets, water and power. It would have been at least $40.  Got to love this free camp gig. 

Tomorrow in to Naracoorte.  Definitely. 

Day 6 - Tominglee to ?

Just lying here thinking that I really better get up and get dressed. It is nice and warm tucked up here. 

We had a fairly quiet night apart from the trucks and the noise from the mine in the distance. 

The plan for today, subject to change of course is to have breakfast in Peak Hill and visit an old gold mine there, then go on to the Parks telescope for lunch. From there is any bodies guess. 

We will see what happens.  

After leaving the camp site we visited the open cut gold mine pit at Peak Hill. Sarah was carried off by the mozzies and almost dropped her in the pit. Once we had escaped the mozzie militia and retrieved Sarah we quickly learnt all we could about gold mining, snapped a few pics and hit the road again. 

The Parks Radio Telescope proved to be less risky but a lot more interesting than the gold mine. 

The Dish is one of the real science icons in Australia. I must have been there twenty or thirty times and it is always interesting. The kids spent ages looking through the displays and even more time deciding what souvenirs to get. Tim is currently reading every display and learning lots. 

We had a yummy beef and wine pie along with cosmic milkshakes for lunch before heading south again. 

We decided to see how far we could get to try to make up time. We managed to get to Narranderra in time for the rain and are currently camped at a sports field on the banks of the Murrumbidgee if the rain gets heavy we might have the fun of a muddy pack up in the middle of the night    Looks unlikely at the moment as the ground is fairly solid and the rain has eased. 

Tomorrow we are planning on going to Echuca so Tim can visit the woodturner. All other plans will be firm after they have happened. 

Day 5- Western Plains Zoo. Dubbo and on to Tomingly.

We spent a very enjoyable day at Western Plain Zoo. 

Most people seem to drive there cars or the electric carts around the 6 km loop road. We decided to walk. In hind site I think this was a great decision. We got a chance to wander around and see parts of the zoo that those who stuck to their cars would not see. We even got to see a bit of road rage as one of the drivers hung off his horn when held up by a couple who were riding bikes and towing a couple of kids around the road. I don't why you would pay the entry fee then proceed to charge around at top speed. 

We enjoyed talks at the rhino, meerkat and hippo displays. The meerkats were a hit, especially when they all crowded to protect a 3 week old kitten the size of a guinea pig, when the meerkat on guard raised an alarm at something flying overhead. 

The hippo "Happy" was keen to show his teeth. 

The other big hit was the Galapagos Tortoise. These things are huge. One of them decided to chase us around the outside of their enclosure and got close enough to touch.  Amazing. 

I think this was the highlight. 

We finished at the zoo, got some ice creams, decided $70 was too much for a brilliant ceramic meerkat 

And headed 50km south to a very nice little rest stop near a newly opened gold mine. I think the spot would have been quieter a month a go, but is still quieter (and cheaper) than the caravan park in Dubbo where we stayed last night. 

Tomorrow we are off to an old gold mine at Peak Hill and the Radio Telescope at Parks. Should be setting up camp somewhere around West Wylong, but as always this is subject to change. We are skipping the Age of Fishes museum at Canowindra and hope to make it there on the way home. We need to make up a day to get somewhere near our scheduled stop in Naracourte. 

Day 4 - Siding Springs to Dubbo

Leaving the van at the Warrumbungle national park, we made our way to Sidings
Springs Observatory.  The damage from the bush fires, and it is obvious that a massive effort was made to protect the telescopes.  In places there are burnt trees only ten meters from telescope buildings.  I can't help but be amazed that they were able to save most of the facility from major damage.

The fire reached just below those trees.

The kids (big and little) spent a fair bit of time looking through the exploritorum and at the telescope before we headed back to the Warrumbungles to pick up the van and head off to Dubbo.

We headed back to the Newell highway via Tonderburine, a nice quiet drive after the speed of the Newel.  Into Gilgandra and some (almost) much need fuel and down to Dubbo.

After lunch near the visitors centre, we walked down to the Dubbo Gaol and spend a very interesting arvo looking over the very primitive accommodations that were still in use up to 1966.

The Emily and Tim enjoyed helping out with a couple of the demonstrations about escapes.

The night was spent in the first paid caravan park of the trip.   Not sure that paying got us better accommodation than the free (or almost free) alternatives.