Melbourne Oct. 5

Sunny, high of 17.
A perfect day for visiting the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. There are a series of large gardens, starting right in the center of the city, and going south. One of these gardens is the Botanical Garden. It's quite large, about 90 acres in area. The location is along the Yarra river, which flows through central Melbourne.
It was created in 1846, mainly for non- Australian trees and flowers, but has been expanded to include most Australian species. It's a great place to stroll, and enjoy nature. There are many sections, and educational exhibits along the way.
There are over 700 species of Eucalyptus trees; all only found in Australia and some nearby islands. They have adapted to the poor soil conditions in Australia, and the dry climate here. The leaves are small, glossy, and waxy, all characteristics that reduce water loss. During the dry season, some will drop all their leaves, and hibernate during this time.
What impressed me the most was the size and shape of many of the trees. Giants of the plant world.
Sandy got a kick out of seeing flowers that she recognized, and that we have at home. Without our winters many here are much larger, and the flowers have more brilliant colours.
I was more impressed with the exotic varieties.
The gardens are a bit hilly, and there is a large lake. It's a peaceful place, very quiet, considering its in the middle of a large city. The most noticeable sounds are the many birds, including varieties of parrots.
All in all it was a lovely way to spend a gorgeous spring day.

Melbourne Oct. 4

High of 29, sunny skies, no humidity.
The temperature isn't the only thing that went up. Gas went from 1.35 to 1.47 again. I can't figure out any logical reasoning, except the it jumps every time I have to fill up.
We spent a few hours at the Immigration Museum.
The building is wonderful. It is right in the CBD, and was, originally, the Customs House. This was a very important part of government. Ships arriving in Melbourne were inspected by customs officials, and they determined the customs duties of the merchandise. Before the creation of income taxes custom duties provided 80% of government revenues.
The building has been restored and is one of the landmarks of Melbourne.
The exhibits are excellent. There are full scale replicas of accommodations for passengers sailing from Europe.
Back in the 1840's it took 4 to 6 months to sail to Australia. A family would have a berth the size of a queen size bed, to live in and store all their belongings.
The museum is very honest and points out the mistreatment of the aboriginals, and also the racist policies of governments, over time.
There was a large influx of Chinese in the second half of the 19th century, because of the large Australian gold rush of the 1850's, and a great resentment by the whites to the success of the Chinese gold miners.
In 1901 Australia joined the Commonwealth. Part of its constitution was a "White Australia" policy. This allowed the government to determine who could immigrate to Australia. Non-whites were greatly discouraged. Something unique to Australian policy was the "Dictation Test". This was applied to people landing in Australia, who were considered "undesirable". The test could be given in any European language. It was basically a way to keep non-whites out.
In a celebrated case, a Czech communist who wanted to attend a conference, back in 1934, was given the test in several languages, but finally failed when Gaelic was used. This led to a court case, that threw out the outcome.
The Dictation Test wasn't officially discontinued until 1958.
In many ways immigration and the treatment of minorities was similar in Australia and Canada. The treatment of Chinese labourers in British Columbia was like the treatment of Chinese labourers in Australia.. In, both Australia and Canada, there were internment camps, during the World Wars, for Germans and Japanese, in WWII.
The Austalian government prides itself, that, in recent years, it has accepted refugees from Somalia, the Sudan, Kosovo, and other troubled areas.
I have to say that there seems to be more of a "White Power" mentality here than at home. Immigration policies are one of the hot topics in Australian politics.
Australia is not as diverse as Canada, there a high number of Orientals, but some could have been here for several generations. There are few Africans, and a small number of Muslims, but nothing on the scale of Toronto.
To be honest, I prefer our attitude.
Enjoy, Ralf

Melbourne Oct 3

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!!

Melbourne Oct 2

A sunny warm day!
And what to do on a sunny, warm day? Go to the beach. Which we did.
We went to Brighton Beach the southern suburbs of the city. I am amazed at the public transport  in  Melbourne. As a senior, for the price of 3.60 I can use as many trains, trams, and buses as I want to. And the system would be the same as covering from Oakville to Ajax. There are about a dozen different lines going in all directions. It is fabulous.
Brighton Beach is well known for its beach cabins. There are 82 cabins all lined up along the beach; and it is a beautiful beach. Each cabin is the size of a small hut, smaller than a one-car garage. They are lined up, side by side, no space between, no back yard. You can't own the cabin, you can only rent it. The astounding thing is that it costs almost 200 000 dollars (That's the right number of zeros) to be able to rent one. There is also a yearly fee of 500 dollars. No water, no electricity. There is a long waiting list to get one. Figure that out.
They are very colourful though and a pretty sight.
I am sure there is a web site that shows them. Try Brighton Beach beach houses.
After Brighton Beach, we took the train back into central Melbourne. They don't call it downtown, they call it CBD, Central Business District, where we walked through some of the narrow lanes. Graffiti is an art form here, and quite a few of the lanes are dedicated to this art. It is quite a sight. Some gorgeous art! I don't know how they control it, but it is impressive.
The only downside to the day was, that when we arrived at the Victoria Market we discovered it closes at 2.
Luckily we have enough supplies, so that we don't starve.
A little side line. Some Australian restaurants have interesting slogans. There is "The Lord Of The Fries", and a steak house called "The Stag", that advertises itself as "The Worst Vegetarian Restaurant in Australia".
Cute.
Till tomorrow
Ralf

Melbourne Oct. 1

Getting back to yesterday.
As I mentioned we left Monarto Park at 2 pm for our drive back to Melbourne. It was just over 600 km, and it took us 7 hours.
I must say I am impressed with the drivers in Australia. I haven't come across one yahoo, who tailgated, or drove like crazy. The speed limit on the highway is 100 or 110, and nobody drove more than 10 over the limit.
There were a couple of radar traps as we went through towns.
The only multi-lane roads are near the big cities, Adelaide and Melbourne. The rest of the major highways are two lane roads. One nice thing is there isn't a lot of traffic, everyone drives sanely, and there are passing lanes every 5 to 10 km.
The highways do go through every little town along the route. I guess it's like our secondary roads, like Highway 6 or 5.
We didn't see any vineyards, but there were many canola farms. They are the most gorgeous brilliant yellow, especially in large fields.
The ministry of transport seems to have an obsession about drivers falling asleep at the wheel. Every 15 minutes, or so, there is another sign.
"Open your eyes; Fatigue kills" I wonder how you read that one if your eyes aren't open.
"Stop every 2 hours, for a rest".
"Feeling drowsy; have powernap"
My favorite though.  " Drowsy drivers die".
I feel like adding; " So does everyone else"
The rest areas along the road are called "Powernap Areas"
Another small difference between the cars here, and the ones at home is that the turn signals are on the right side of the steering column, the windshield wipers are on the left.
For the first few days this is what happened whenever I turned:
Turn on the wipers
Say a bad word
Turn on the signal
Turn off the wipers.
But I am learning.
Today was another Day of Rest. Sandy did the laundry, some grocery shopping, catching up on email, lots of reading.
Tomorrow is back to being a tourist.
Ralf

Sept 30

We left our B&B after a great breakfast of toast, eggs, fried tomatoes, bacon and a cappuccino.
On our way back home, we stopped at the Monarto Zoological Garden. This is associated with the Adelaide Zoo, and is mainly concerned with breeding and conservation of endangered animals. It's a large site, 10 square km, that's 23 times larger than the  Vatican State, for those of you into trivia facts. More animals, fewer cardinals.
It's a great experience.
There are several viewing platforms, where staff feed the animals and give short talks. Buses, with guides, take you around, and you can get on and off whenever you want. We were extremely lucky, because we hit three of the talks and feeding time for giraffes, white rhino, African wild dogs and lions. There are only two talks per day, and one feeding time.
The animals have lots of room, but you could get very close to a lot of the animals, because of the feedings.
There is a large chimp area, about half the size of a football field, and also in indoor area, the size and height of a two story house. I was surprised at the size of the chimps. In the movies they are small enough to be held, something like a three year child. In reality, a grown chimp is almost 1.5 m tall, and 45 kg; the highlight was a new born chimp. Chimps only give birth every 5-6 years, and a mother will look after a baby for 4-5 years.
Next we visited the giraffes. There is a herd of 9 at the park, and they come quite close for feeding. They spend 16-20 hours a day grazing, and, according to our guide, never sleep. They are big, up to 6 meters high, and 1500 kg. When a baby giraffe is born it is 2 m tall and weighs 70 kg. It is born with the mother standing up, so the baby drops 2 m to the ground, as its initiation to the world.
The next stop was my favorite, the White Rhino. It came right up to the fence to be fed, and we could touch and "pet" it for about 15 minutes, while the keeper talked about it. I don't think it felt much; its skin is 1.5 cm thick. But it is huge, the second largest land animal. The male we were meeting weighed 2500 kg, and his shoulders were over my head. It is strictly a grazer, no meat. Just goes to show that you don't have to eat meat to get big and strong. They are surprisingly agile, and can reach speeds of 50 km/h. That's a lot of momentum!
We also timed our visit to see the feeding of the African wild dogs, a very colorful creature, and the lions.
Our visit lasted over 4 hours, and it was great.
The down side was that we left the zoo at 2 in the afternoon; we faced a 600 km drive back home.
More about that tomorrow,
Ralf