Cake walk in Melbourne

Cake shops are a big deal here in Saint Kilda (a beach suburb of Melbourne). They are so pretty to look at and there are not many places in the world where one can see so many calories in one place. Sometimes I refrain from buying, other times...well, you know...

A Malaysian gentleman laughed at me taking this picture (see below). “You take picture and then just look”. I replied “Certainly, that way I don't get fat”. He laughed louder.

Our connection won't allow image uploads - I will send a photo of a cake shop window later.

Our hall at the Tolerno

Aren't the colors fabulous?

We are in Melbourne - it's party time!

We arrived Melbourne late last night. I phoned the hotel folks from Tasmania around 5 PM telling
them we would be late and they said ok. When we arrived they said that I phoned to cancel our
room! The guide book says the Tolerno Botique Hotel is quirky - no kidding, but it's still great.

The street outside was alive with humanity - all kinds of accents. Lots of Greeks, Lebanese, some African, Israeli, Asians (various), Australian, etc. and I still can't understand any of them. Great restaurants - everywhere.

Pictures coming on next post.

Wombat Poop

Echidna - lays eggs

Boardwalk at Dove Lake, Cradle Mountain, Tasmania

More Dove Lake

The cute wombat perhaps producing square pellets?

Wombats mark their territory with their scat. They produce large square pellets that won't roll and they arrange to poop on top of rocks or other prominent places. We became experts in wombat poop after listening to 'Ranger Tom' yesterday and today we were able to identify lots of wombat territory.
We were at another national park where we took another amazing hike - this time around an alpine lake. We finally got good photos of an echidna and late in the day we did find the wombat.
Tomorrow we leave for Melbourne and we will be very sorry to be leaving Tasmania.

Wombats are big. These guys weight up to about 80 LBS and can be longer than a yard _and_ they dig holes - big holes about 2 ft in diameter and up to 60 feet in length! They kill predators that follow them into holes by allow them to get their head between the wombat and the top of the burrow and then they push up and crush or suffocate the predator (usually dingos, the Australian dog).

I have taken great care not to follow one down a hole so all is ok, but sometimes it's hard stopping myself because they are kind of cute.

What's a Wombat

A pademelon

wombat

We spent yesterday in Narawntapu National Park where we saw tons of pademelons, wallabies and kangaroos and finally saw a couple wombats late in the afternoon. Wombats are large cute bear-like ground hog marsupials. Next we dashed over to Latrobe - the "platypus Capital of the World" and saw a number of platypus's before it got completely dark Never thought I'd see one in the wild! - but there were lots swimming briefly on the surface of a beautiful river.
And the night before we were out til 11 in the freezing wind watching fairy penguins come ashore to feed their chicks.

Tasmania with Photos

After spending a couple hours wandering around town asking teen agers about internet and wireless connections we found that our B&B indeed had an internet hookup in the form of a cable behind the sofa! Sooo - here is the post from our stay in Eastern Tasmania - I'll post something about the north tomorrow . So far Coles Bay has been the only place we've been skunked finding connectiuons.

Our Cabin

We’re in the middle of our 4 day stay in a “self contained” cabin in Coles Bay near Freycinet National park on the east coast of Tasmania. The cabin itself is fine though we did have quite an adventure shopping for provisions in the small stores in the area and trying to open a tin of salmon with a non-functioning can opener.

View from our sitting area

But the setting is the most spectacular of our trip. The national park is a long peninsula of tall pink granite rock formations with lots of hiking trails along both coasts and over the top. We’ve seen several wallabies hanging around parking lots and last night three pademelons visited our yard. They looked like rabbits in the dark until they stood up and hopped away like miniature kangaroos.

On a day hike over the peninsula

View from the top

Tasmania - no photos

We love Cole's Bay - did not want to leave. Photos will come later.

Now in Devenport on a quest to see wombats and platypuses.

More later - expensive internet.

Foot in mouth disease

Yesterday I mentioned to a Tasmanian women we met that we just arrived in Tasmania (aka Tas, pronounced Taz). She asked where we had come from and I told her Australia! Whoops went my brain; Tasmania is an Australian state and I knew better! I tried to recover by saying we came from Oz (aka Australia) and were now visiting Taz, but she did one better by saying, "Oh, you were on the 'other' Island". We both chuckled and I was off the hook...phew!

Summer?

Here I am bundled up. Dave reminds me that it can get chilly near the coast at home in the summer too. I feel like we are soooo far south but we figured that we are roughly as far south of the equator as Portland Oregon is north. There is still a ways to go to the South Pole.


We spend the day exploring Port Arthur which served as an island prison in the 1800's and is now a national park and top tourist attraction. It was a beautiful site despite being cold and windy today. The area south of Hobart is a complex array of islands, curvy peninsulas and lots of sheltered water ways. The open ocean coasts are dramatic and we were really taken with the area.

Coast off Pirates Bay Looking at the Tasman Sea

Hobart, Tasmania

Well, hello again -
We're staying in a very nice small hotel in Hobart which has free high speed internet connection! There was a bit of rain yesterday but today looks fine. Hobart is much larger than I expected. The old section which is built around a beautiful harbor reminded us of Scotland. There is a real fishing industry here (compared to Sydney and Adelaide), Dave is in seventh heaven thinking about fish and we had a wonderful seafood meal last night. There are lots of young folks and families around and the city is gearing up for the festivities surrounding the big Sydney-Hobart yacht race which happens just after Christmas. I'd glad we'll be gone by that time.

Marsupial Mouse

This guy was friendly. It's a marsupial with a pouch and not much of an attitude.

Goodbye Adelaide

A Tasmanian Devil - a cross between a bear and a rat

Our stay in South Australia is coming to an end. This area feels a lot like California (we spent yesterday visiting wineries) until we see parrots in the eucalyptus trees. In contrast, our drive down the coast from Sydney felt like we were on the big island of Hawaii.
Now we’re off to Tasmania for 10 days. When we ask about Tasmania here people say “rain” so we may see more “thundery showers”. Tasmania seems like the end of the world and I’m not sure how much internet we’ll find. Even if we are out of touch we’ll be thinking of friends and family and hope you all have a wonderful holiday.

Santa, Reindeer and Birds

Corrugated Santa Claus

Here's looking at you

I fed this guy out of my hand - no fingers lost. I think he (she?) wanted to follow me home.

Wildlife Park

We had so much fun at Cleland Wildlife Park. In fact we were there almost from opening til closing. It was interesting being in with the local animals and being able to watch them, photograph and sketch.

Christmas in South Australia

We were lucky enough to see the local Victor Harbor Christmas parade. It was led off by a pirate ship float and featured lots of rescue organizations. Many spectators came in costume - mostly angels and Santas, but also some clowns and pirates.

Wildlife and Art

Our B&B

Victor Harbor was an excellent choice. There were a few historic towns in the area, beautiful coast and lots of good birding. We particularly enjoyed our hosts at the B&B, Wendy and Paul. Wendy paints Australian birds (www.wjennings.com) and runs a gallery in her home and Paul has run several of the Southern Australian National Parks. They drew finches in with seed and Kookaburras in with sliced lamb heart. This is a picture of their home and one of Wendy’s paintings taken through glass. Apologies for the poor quality.

Finches at the B&B

Our host's art work

Hot December

Yesterday was the first really hot day of our trip. We took the tram into Adelaide and explored the downtown which reminded us of a western US city. It was much more cosmopolitan than we expected with lots of South Asian eateries and lots of tourists. We thought the sand sculpture - Christmas display appropriate. Great produce marketplace - huge and lots of fresh stuff.
Because we had to cancel our 4 days on Kangaroo Island we’ve been staying on in Glenelg, a resort suburb something like Santa Cruz. It looks like it will get crowded this weekend so we picked a small town at random (Victoria Harbor) to escape to. We chose a small B&B because it was run by a wildlife artist - I figure my artist friends are either great company or a bit crazy so it should be interesting.

Bushwalking

We bought an ‘eskie’ (cooler) and went ‘bushwalking’ (hiking) on the Fleurieu Peninsula where we saw several ‘mobs’ (groups) of kangaroos as well as huge flocks of white cockatoos and galahs, several gigantic black cockatoos and, our favorite, the ‘superb fairy wren’.

Feels like home

This morning bad news in the local paper - Kangaroo Island, our next stop is ablaze from lightning fires. Bombers from California are on the way - Cody are you ready to go? We were advised to stay away so change of plans and we will be staying in Adelaide instead. We are disappointed, but there is lots to do here and surrounding environs. We won't be bored.

Goodbye Canberra

We had a leisurely morning at the beautiful Canberra National Botanical Gardens and than it was off to the airport for a flight to Adelaide.
We did not have to remove our shoes at security and we found out we could have brought our water bottles along after we threw them out.

Flies and Wine

We're spending two days with our friends Wendy and Grant at their country estate visiting wineries and seeing Canberra. Dave and I got a kick out of touring their property in our Fly Hats"

Reptiles and Amphibians

Conversations with our hostess at our Friday night stop a riverside resort. “We saw a black snake - what do you think that was”

“ Oh a red bellied black snake - they’re quite poisonous, but the brown ones are more aggressive.”

“I guess they’re not as common (hopefully)?”

“Oh no, they’re common enough.”

”And we saw a cute little frog on the road”

“Oh yes, they have a habit of coming up through the toilets”

Parrots and kangaroos are becoming mundane.
Well, we are off to see our friends, Wendy and Grant.

Rain

We drove down from Sydney in the rain - but we did see out first kangaroo 'in the wild' and a laughing kookaburra in a gum tree.

Sydney Birds

The most striking common birds in the city for me were the flocks of cockatoos and the ubiquitous white ibis.



I was particularly taken with the ibis's roosting in the palm trees in the Royal Botanical Garden.



Tomorrow we leave Sydney and begin driving down the coast and we may not have access to the internet. We'll see what we find.