Week Three Term Two

Daily indoor snack time.

This is the train I catch from Caulfield School to my home in Chelsea.

How to make friends, outside the train station.

These people where outside Finder's Station where I'd gone to meet Lucy.

Lucy and I after a long night of talking about Australia, underwater sports, Canada and Colombia.

Tuesday-Friday, April 26-29^th

Back to school on a Tuesday morning which was nice for a change. I had ordered book two and three of the Parvana trilogy and they arrived this week. The kids are very excited about that.

I told Amanda that I would not be attending the evening professional learning on Tuesday after school, as I had to take my bicycle tire into the Bicycle Superstore to get it repaired. Thankfully I got there before it shut and they fixed it on the spot. I had a heck of time getting it back on because of the front brakes. I didn't ride at all this week.

Other than that it was a normal albeit short week. I managed to get all of the work done that I needed to do before switching groups again. We have settled into a relaxed routine, the kids know what to expect from me and what I expect from them, so by enlarge things are running fairly seemlessly.

Singing on Wednesday with Joel was good. The kids seem to be enjoying the songs he selects and singing in a large choir of 160 kids. Sport on Friday was cancelled for us because of inclement weather.

One evening I took the train downtown to Flinder's Station to met with Lucy (Lucero) a woman who had contacted me online. From her profile I knew she played underwater hockey and rugby! I was very interested in learning more about that. We spent a very enjoyable evening in a coffee shop and a restaurant, talking for hours. She is now an Australian citizen, but she hails from Colombia and has a delightful accent and an interesting command of the English language. I learned all about the sports and her history of playing over the last three decades! She started in the pools with synchronized swimming and then water polo before immersing herself in underwater hockey. She has played in numerous national and international competitions and won many medals in all of those sports. Truly inspiring. We also talked about Canada, Colombia and Australia. 

A few of us went out to celebrate a couple of birthdays. Shawna's was on the holiday Monday and Claire, my teaching partner was on Friday. So Libby, Carol, Bev and I took them out for a couple of drinks. As usual we had a few good laughs. Libby is a going concern and the life of the party. I took the train in that day because of the outing. So Libby caught a Uber cab (first one I had ever been in) and took me part way home. She dropped me off at Parkdale Station and I caught the train from there.

Another wonderful week passes by.

Dona Buang Rainforest Gallery

The main drag of Warburton.

Saturday, April 30^th.

I slept in a bit this morning and woke up to a pretty nice day. I had not planned where to go so I decided to for a drive north. A couple of months ago I cycled the Lilydale to Warburton Trail with Graham and Tess. After they left I programmed my GPS to go back to Warbuton via the roads, and it took me through town and up a moutain to a remote washroom by a rainforest hike. I didn't hike it then because it was getting too dark. So I decided to go back there and explore the forest.

Again I programmed the GPS and again it took me through town and up the mountain to the same washroom. This is the entrance to the Yarra National Park which is named after the river that has its head waters here and eventually runs right through the centre of Melbourne and into Phillip Bay. From the edge of the road there is a metal walkway out into the Dona Buang Rainforest Gallery. From the platform I was 15 metres above the forest floor. The view was spectacular with huge, old gum trees (that have been growing here long before James Cook and the other Europeans discovered Australia) and a variety of other moss covered trees, including fern trees.

From the walkway there were stairs down to the floor and a metal path that let you walk through the forest without disturbing the vegetation. It was very quiet and peaceful there with the silence broken only by birds and the wind through the trees.

After that I retraced my route over the mountain and back through Warburton, where I stopped for something to eat before driving back home. 

Morning Hike and Scenic Drive Home

Feeding time.

Isn't nature amazing? Incredible animals.

A beautiful blue cheeked Rosella. I have seen a number of these but finally managed to get a photo.

Some of Australia's amazing gum trees.

The main drag of Maryborough on the way home.

Piles of rocks removed from the fields.

A farmstead build in 1863, by early settlers.

Monday, April 25^th

I woke up really early and decided to do a few things around the town and the valley before heading back home via a different route. I had read in the park guide about a hike in the valley through the bush and where early in the morning you might see some wild life. So I headed out by car at dawn to the starting point, which was at the parking lot of the National Park and the Brambuk Cultural Centre. It was a short three kilometre walk and I took my time, enjoying the quiet, the solitude, the bird calls and the bush. I love the Australian trees. There is something about them that really appeals to me. After walking through the bush for a bit I came across a large, flat clearing which was populated by about twenty grazing kangaroos. They were spread out over the area. They looked at me but when I stood still they ignored me and went back to feeding. I watched a couple of large joeys with their heads inside their mother's pouch. I assume they were suckling. In amongst them I saw three emus feeding as well. I really enjoyed standing there and watching, being largely ignored and listening to the calls of the birds and the screech of the cockatoos. I felt very privileged.

It was really cold this morning and I could see my breath. I was wearing my lite down jacket and shorts. My fingers got really cold and started to go numb. As I continued the walk it re-entered the bush and there were more kangaroos feeding in there. I almost tripped over two of them who were well camouflaged and obviously weren't worried about me.

When I got back two hours later at nine, it was open and I went in to see the displays. I was the first person in there and I talked to a woman park ranger about the hike, the park and the roos and then she told me I should visit the Brambuk Cultural Centre. It is right next door and is a museum of aboriginal history in a building named after the cockatoos and whose roof is built to resemble the shape of their wings in flight. Inside I read panels about their sad story, how their homelands were stolen, they were marginalized, some were hunted and killed, children were stolen from families and either put in state schools to educate the aboriginal out of them or were adopted out to white people. Their history and current struggles have some distinct similarities to North American natives. The British Empire has a lot to answer for.

After that I went back to town to have breakfast. I bought a couple of nice sandwiches from a local bakery and ate one of them in the little park in town. Then I went to the car and got my bicycle out and decided to ride around town and out to the reservoir. There is a good bicycle path through town and out through the park. I rode to the reservoir where I sat on a picnic table and ate the other one. Now that the sun had come up and reached the valley floor the temperature had gone up considerably and I was able to ride in a t-shirt. I turned around and rode back to the car, but unfortunately hit a pothole and blew my front tire. Luckily I was close to the car. I got back, loaded it up and decided to head home. But first I had an ice cream cone!

As I said I took a different route home. It was the route the motorcycle riders that I talked to the other day, took from Melbourne to get here. It was along secondary highways and was much more scenic. It went through a few small towns. I stopped at a couple of them to walk around for a bit before continuing on. I drove through some really dry pastures that were totally brown and looked like it hadn't rained for years and past creeks with their totally dry beds. I passed fields of rocks that couldn't be used for anything except sheep and then a few fields where the farmers had removed as many rocks as possible and piled them up in the fields (see the photo). An hour later I was driving through the Pyrenees, a small hilly area with more greenery and large trees, apparently famous for wine and wool. Amazing how it can change so quickly. Then I was back into the dry lands before the highway took my into the suburbs of Melbourne.

I got home just at dusk. I went straight to the gas station to blow up the tire and then Woolworths to get my lunch supplies. At home I unpacked, made my salad and relaxed before an early bed.

Valleys and Vistas

 Look before you cross!

 Victoria Valley

 The narrow one lane road.

 The view from the Baroka Lookout: Lake Bellfield and the town of Halls Gap.

 The Balconies and people risking their lives.

 MacKenzie Falls.

Lake Wartook

Sunday, April 24^th.

Woke up about seven to the cacophony of cockatoos! Had breakfast at the motel and discovered that there was a motorcycle tour group staying here and heading out this morning. Can you imagine how green I was? I talked to the organizer and told me that they rent bikes too. So I got his card for a possible future trip and a map of a more scenic route home.

After checking out I drove through town looking for a place to stay tonight. Everything was still booked up but I check a hostel on the edge of town and secured a private room for $80.

With that sorted, I decided to drive the Grampian Road from Halls Gap to the southern end of the park, a town called Dunkeld. It was about a 60 kilometre drive through some lovely forests and past mountain vistas. I saw a red deer and her doe by the side of the road and a wallaby as well. On the way back I took another loop through the Victoria Valley. It was even more beautiful as I drove through the flat valley, past farms of sheep and cows and beautiful iconic Australian trees. It was about 30 kms from Dunkeld through the valley back to the main park road. All of it is paved and most of it is one lane only and if anyone comes the other way someone has to give way. I decided that I am going to return to the Grampians in the future and stay in Dunkeld and cycle this section of road. It would be a lovely road to ride and very quiet. On the way back I stopped at the reservoir that they call Lake Bellfield.

When I got back to Halls Gap I decided to drive to a number of scenic lookouts along Mount Difficult Road and Mount Victory Road. First I went to the Boroka Lookout which gave a spectacular view of the valley, Halls Gap and the Lake Bellfield from two viewing platforms. From there I drove to the Reed Lookout, which is a forest fire lookout tower that commands views of the entire area. I took a three kilometre walk from there to the Balconies which provide another amazing view of the valley on the other side from Halls Gap. After that I drove to MacKenzie Falls where I met up with all of the tourists in the park! The parking lot was jammed. I took the trail two kilometres to an overlook of the falls before returning and descending about three hundreds steps to the base of the falls. They are very pretty even though it hasn't rained here in a long time. Then I took a road that descended to Lake Wartook which is another reservoir built in 1899. It was very scenic and I watched a family fly fishing. From there I drove along a very narrow mountain road with no shoulders or guardrails to something called the Zumsteins. I had to find out what that was. It turned out to be the ruins of one of the very first bush camp holiday retreat built by Walter Zumstein and his wife in the 1930's. They built three 'rammed earth' cottages, a swimming pool and a tennis court by the river. They lived there until the last 1950's before they retired. When the National Park was opened the retreat was closed and is now in ruin. Then I had to retrace my steps back past all of those locations to Silverband Road which took me down from the mountain back to Lake Bellfield and the Grampian Road to return to Halls Gap.

I drove to the hostel to check in and pick up my key. I saw two emus feeding in the bush by the hostel. I was hungry and it was getting dark and cool by this time, so I decided to treat myself again and to eat at a local Punjabi Restaurant. I had a delicious meal of chicken tikka, and prawns in coconut and onion sauce with a Carleton Draft. Then I drove back to the hostel for the night. This is a nice hostel, and they have a common room complete with fireplace, TV and DVD machine, a pool table and about eight terrariums full of Australian lizards and snakes! The young husband and wife who run it collect them. I had a nice private room where I went to type and then read. I am reading a book about an Australian pioneer.

I drove a total of 226 kms today.

The Grampians and The Pinnacle Hike

First view of The Grampian Mountains.

 Hiking to the summit.

 The Pinnacle view point.

 There's the view behind my head.

 Hiking through the Grand Canyon.

 How did that happen?

The culprits.

Saturday, April 23^rd.

After waffling back and forth between a three day weekend in the nation's capital or a trip to the mountains, I decided on the latter and to drive to the Grampians and the town of Halls Gap. It was about a three and a half hour drive and about 280 kilometres. I started out with low clouds and some drizzle and I was wondering if I'd made the right decision. Again I had to drive through Melbourne to get to the north and I retraced my steps towards Ballarat and Adelaide.

The sun came out of the clouds just when I came over a hill and could see the Grampians in the distance. By the time I got there it was complete sun and blue sky. I visited the National Park information centre, and noticed the lawn was covered in animal droppings and wondered what was responsible. I bought a map and checked out the hikes. I knew it would be busy here as it is a favourite spot to visit and it was a holiday weekend, so the first thing I did was find a room. This is a tiny town with a few motels, a hotel, campgrounds, hostels and cabins. I think the only people who live here are the service people. I checked at one motel with no luck but they let me use their wi-fi to find one. Luckily I was able to find a room at the local Comfort Inn. I think I got the last in town.

I had seen pictures of a view point called the Pinnacle and I decided to take that hike. It is in the Wonderland Range. There are different ways of hiking to it, but I took the circuit route straight up the mountain, around the top to the Pinnacle, through the forest to the view of the reservoir and then back down through the Grand Canyon. It was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever done. The Pinnacle view point is spectacular! I had bought a sandwich and some fruit and stopped in a couple of places to have a picnic. I hiked for about six hours.

When I got back the sun was down behind the mountains and when I got back to where I left my car I found the source of the animal droppings. There were six kangaroos munching on the grass.

When I came back I checked into my room and then decided to go to the Kookaburra Bistro Bar for dinner. I don't usually like sitting in a restaurant by myself, but I ordered a pint of dark beer and sat and read a local paper while waiting for my meal. It was worth the wait. I had samosas in filo pastry with cooked vegetables.

After that I walked around town in the dark, looking at the full moon and stars and watching all the kangaroos that were all over town. They come out at dusk and feed on the grass. I'm sure the town never has to use a lawn mover, the grass is cropped shorter than a golf green. Then I went to bed early as I was very tired. In bed and asleep by ten.

I drove a total of 295 kms today.

Week Two Term Two

 Joel's 3/4 singing class held outside this week.

 View of singing from the fire escape on the second floor.

 ANZAC Day assembly with the French and Australian flags.

 Don and Shawna talking to the grade 3/4's about problems with trading Pokemon cards.

Grade 3/4 sport on Friday. Half the field is soccer and the other half is footie.

April 18^th - 22^nd.

2^nd Week of Term 2

Happy 30^th Birthday to Danny on the 21^st!

Another week of school that passed by very quickly. On Wednesday we had picture day and because the photographers were in the room we usually use for grade 3/4 singing, we did it outside, which was interesting.

On Friday we had an assembly for Anzac Day which is actually on this holiday Monday. It stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps and marks the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces in the first world war. It was their coming of age as it were. They fought at Gallipoli in Turkey in 1915, and it was a long drawn out battle fought over a beach head. I went to the Gallipoli Museum in New Zealand and that's where I learned that 90% of New Zealand troops and 50% of the Australian troops were lost. This day is more important and celebrated more patriotically here than Remembrance Day. So I have a three weekend to go on another road trip.

In the afternoon we had the grade 3/4 sport class for two hours. First we gathered to talk to all the grade 3/4 kids about trading, selling, buying and stealing Pokemon cards. Unlike Lescon, they do not ban them here because they realize this is something that the non atheletic kids like to do at recess. Unfortunately some big kids take advantage of little kids and apparently one kid stole money from mom to buy a card from some other kid. Then we had five activities going on outside on a rotation basis: soccer, Australian football, netball, fitness class and a games activity for 160 kids.

Other than that, we had all the usual class and teaching lessons. I rode to school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and relaxed at home in the evenings. I have started a new book that Maurene gave me, about the life of an Australian pioneer from the early 1900's. He lived in rural Australia and eventually served at Gallipoli.

Record Store Day and Laying Low

Who could resist?

This was the most interesting store with lots of imports, called the Basement Discs.

They had a bar where drinks cost a donation to a charity.

A beautiful old indoor shopping area.

The mosaic floor.

The view from an eatery of the Fitzroy area.

Saturday and Sunday, April 16-17^th.

My car was still huffing and puffing today from all the driving over the holidays, so I decided to stay in town this weekend. A teacher at school told me it was Record Store Day, and I can't resist an event like that. So I took my bike on the train and went into Melbourne. I cycled around the downtown area and to the area called Fitzroy. There I found several small independent record stores. A couple of them had live music and beer or wine and nibbles for the customers. Very interesting idea and well received. The only problem of course is that the stores were pretty full of people standing around and it made it hard to wander around a check out the music. Maybe I'll go back another time. I stayed in the city until about dinner time and then took the train back to Chelsea.

On Sunday, I stayed put. I did my laundry, tidied the house up, did groceries, chopped up the weekly salad and later went for a walk on the beach. I spent some time sorting pictures, organizing the blog and reading too. So, the first stay near home and relax type weekend of the year. Next weekend is a long weekend and I will travel again then.

Week One Term Two

Cross country running in a neighbourhood park.

My birthday party, Carol, Libby, me, Bev and Bornique.

Monday, April 10th. to April 15th.

A very happy birthday to Mike on the 11th and me on the 12th. Because of the time difference, this year we celebrated on the same day!

Back to work after an amazing two weeks of driving around Tasmania and the Outback. I had a great time and it left me with a thirst for more. I'd like to get back to Tasmania and Cradle Mountain later in the year and I'd like to get to Kangaroo Island, but not sure how to do that one as it is a full day's drive away. I'll figure it out.

So, the first problem at work was I forgot my password into the school network, so I guess I had a good time and cleared my mind of everything over the holidays.

Tuesday was my birthday and I got a lot of e-mails from family and friends, but as I was riding to school I thought I'd like to hear people singing, so as I asked our principal if I could make an announcement during the morning briefing. I told them that it was a special day for someone and asked the music teacher to help me sing Happy Birthday and everyone was singing and looking around trying to figure out who they were singing to, until I raised my arms and pointed to my head. Lots of laughs and I got a few hugs. We had a cross country meet in a neighbourhood park with all the grade 3, 4, 5 and 6's that day. It went very well and was a nice easy day outside in the sun.

It's amazing how quickly you fall back into routines. The rest of the week passed quickly and without incident. I started teaching the social studies topic "Where do we come from?" I know that sounds like sex ed, but it's about early Australian history. So I started with human migration out of Africa and eventually to Australia and then we talked about the aborigines and then early European explorers. I played them two Midnight Oil songs, Beds are Burning and the Dead Heart, which address aboriginal and white issues. So I am learning about their history as I go.

I rode the bike to school all five days and the weather was very pleasant. Apparently we are having a drier and milder spring than usual. I'm not complaining!



Back in Victoria

For one long stretch of highway in the outback, this is the only hill I saw, and it is a man-made hill in the middle of nowhere to cross the railway tracks from the post: Beginning The Long Drive Back.

Foggy morning entering my home state, Victoria.

I forget who passed who...

The Grampian Mountains which I will visit in the coming months. Apparently a great area for hiking.

Sunday, April 10^th.

I got up early and started out by 8:00 in a thick fog. Traffic was light and within a half hour I reached the Victoria border. From there it was a full day of driving with not too much different to check out.

As I was driving all this week one thing became clear to me as a distinct difference between Canada and Australia when it comes to driving safely. In Canada the focus over the last few years has been on distracted drivers, using cellphones and other devices. In Australia however, I have not seen any attention paid to that issue. But they must have lots of statistics about drivers falling asleep and crashing, because I saw hundreds of signs about the perils of driving tired: You Can't Fight Sleep, Drowsy Drivers Die, A Power Nap Could Save Your Life, Micro Sleep Can Kill in a Second, Fatigue is Fatal, Drive to Survive, Tired? Power Nap Now! (which begs the question: can I pull over first?) and others I can't remember. And there were also hundreds of pull off the road rest stops for travelers and Road Train drivers, some with washrooms and a couple with free coffee! I also saw a number of large signs that said “High there? Drug Impaired Driving Stops Here”. I saw a TV show about the effort that South Australia is putting in to catching drug impaired drivers. They have road side testing stations and the penalties are stiff.

I arrived back in Chelsea by 5:00 and immediately did my laundry and then went to Woolworth's for lunch and food supplies for the week. I spent the evening relaxing, catching up on the typing and reflecting on two very successful road trips. I made the most of my two week break and thoroughly enjoyed the sights and activities.

The price of regular unleaded petrol in Melbourne fluctuates between 104 and 114 per litre, but in the outback I paid up to 169 per litre. 

A total of 487 kms of driving today.

Interesting facts:

I just calculated the total number of kilometres I drove in the two week holidays and it was 8570. To drive to Vancouver from Toronto is 4376 kilometres, so I drove the equivalent of Toronto to Vancouver and almost all the way back again. OR, I just calculated this: from Vancouver to Halifax, and then from Halifax to Toronto is 7959 kms. So I would still have enough kilometres left to drive to the cottage and back! Pretty crazy! Maybe I'll try that when I get home!