The weather has been perfect the last couple of days; high 22, low 12, and sunny. I haven't worn my thermals for two days.
We drove to Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary yesterday. It was a lovely one hour drive through the Yarra Valley. Rolling hills, very green, and full of wineries.
We arrived in Australia just at the start of their 2 week Spring Break for schools, so we have seen many students. I have to say they are better behaved than Canadian teens. On trains and buses they have offered us seats, without being asked. They are just as boisterous as teens back home, but I have not heard the F.... word in public yet.
The problem was that when we arrived at the sanctuary it was at the same time as numerous families and school groups. It took us 45 minutes before we were able to buy our tickets. I was concerned that it would be chaos once we got inside, but the sanctuary is so big that there was little crowding. Like the Adelaide zoo the concentration is on wildlife conservation, and protection of native species.
There is a hospital, on site, where they raise babies which have been abandoned or have medical difficulties. While we visited they were doing an operation on a bird, which we could watch on a big screen TV. The baby koalas, wombats, and Tasmanian devils are so cute.
Another highlight was a "Spirits of the Sky" show where you sit in an arena and hawks, owls, parrots and eagles show their skills. They fly around, no nets, within a meter of the heads of the audience. Great Show.
We also saw our first platypus. I always pictured them as big as a beaver, but they are smaller than an otter, but just as graceful a swimmer.
My highlight was seeing a Tasmanian Devil, awake and moving. All the others that I have seen have been asleep, as they are a nocturnal animal. This one was going to another zoo, and the keepers were trying to trap it. For about 15 minutes we watched it evading the trap. The keepers were not chasing it, they waited patiently until it entered a baited cage. The Tamanian Devil is the size of a opposum, black, with white and red markings. Quite a cute animal.
The trip home was a nightmare. I felt I was in a movie, "The Revenge of the GPS". George, our GPS had a nervous breakdown; a complete one. As soon as we left Healesville it went nuts. It showed us in the middle of a field, and gave us direction to turn onto non-existstant highways. As I said, it was a nightmare. It was as if we were driving from Barrie to Hamilton, via downtown Toronto, at rush hour. There was a stretch in the middle of Melbourne, where I timed that it took 10 minutes to drive 1 km. We went by a cemetery and, I swear, the headstones were moving faster than we were. This car saw parts of Melbourne it has never seen before, or will ever see again.
George also decided to change his suggestions. Instead of saying "Turn left on James Street", it would say "Turn west on Highway 6". Not too many streets in the center of a city show their highway number, and, unless you are a real good boy scout who knows where east and west is in the middle of a city.
It took us 2 hours, and an extra 30 km to finally get home.
I almost had a religious experience when I saw a landmark that I recognized.
True to form as we were 50 m from our house George said "Recalculating" followed by "You have reached your destination".
A trip to remember!!
We drove to Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary yesterday. It was a lovely one hour drive through the Yarra Valley. Rolling hills, very green, and full of wineries.
We arrived in Australia just at the start of their 2 week Spring Break for schools, so we have seen many students. I have to say they are better behaved than Canadian teens. On trains and buses they have offered us seats, without being asked. They are just as boisterous as teens back home, but I have not heard the F.... word in public yet.
The problem was that when we arrived at the sanctuary it was at the same time as numerous families and school groups. It took us 45 minutes before we were able to buy our tickets. I was concerned that it would be chaos once we got inside, but the sanctuary is so big that there was little crowding. Like the Adelaide zoo the concentration is on wildlife conservation, and protection of native species.
There is a hospital, on site, where they raise babies which have been abandoned or have medical difficulties. While we visited they were doing an operation on a bird, which we could watch on a big screen TV. The baby koalas, wombats, and Tasmanian devils are so cute.
Another highlight was a "Spirits of the Sky" show where you sit in an arena and hawks, owls, parrots and eagles show their skills. They fly around, no nets, within a meter of the heads of the audience. Great Show.
We also saw our first platypus. I always pictured them as big as a beaver, but they are smaller than an otter, but just as graceful a swimmer.
My highlight was seeing a Tasmanian Devil, awake and moving. All the others that I have seen have been asleep, as they are a nocturnal animal. This one was going to another zoo, and the keepers were trying to trap it. For about 15 minutes we watched it evading the trap. The keepers were not chasing it, they waited patiently until it entered a baited cage. The Tamanian Devil is the size of a opposum, black, with white and red markings. Quite a cute animal.
The trip home was a nightmare. I felt I was in a movie, "The Revenge of the GPS". George, our GPS had a nervous breakdown; a complete one. As soon as we left Healesville it went nuts. It showed us in the middle of a field, and gave us direction to turn onto non-existstant highways. As I said, it was a nightmare. It was as if we were driving from Barrie to Hamilton, via downtown Toronto, at rush hour. There was a stretch in the middle of Melbourne, where I timed that it took 10 minutes to drive 1 km. We went by a cemetery and, I swear, the headstones were moving faster than we were. This car saw parts of Melbourne it has never seen before, or will ever see again.
George also decided to change his suggestions. Instead of saying "Turn left on James Street", it would say "Turn west on Highway 6". Not too many streets in the center of a city show their highway number, and, unless you are a real good boy scout who knows where east and west is in the middle of a city.
It took us 2 hours, and an extra 30 km to finally get home.
I almost had a religious experience when I saw a landmark that I recognized.
True to form as we were 50 m from our house George said "Recalculating" followed by "You have reached your destination".
A trip to remember!!
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