Healesville Sanctuary II

Pretty cool pelican I thought this was a great scene. A galah (type of cockatoo) perched on an emu's food trough, while another little birdy picks through the emu's poop for a snack.

close-up

Dingo!

This was one of the coolest things we saw--the lyrebird. Kind of looks like a peacock with only a couple feathers. When the male does his mating call, below, he scratches the ground, kicks up soil, then spreads its wings and does imitations of other bird's calls, it must have done at least 8 different ones. Duncan could identify a few, including the cockatoo.

Healesville Sanctuary

On Pamela's last day in Oz we drove out to the Healesville Sanctuary, southeast of Melbourne. A glorified zoo, I suppose, with all native animals. Including wombats, tasmanian devils and platypuses. And the cutest koalas!

Oh, and some big, nasty fruit bats!

This nice aboriginal man filled in at the "Birds of Prey" exhibit (the main bird refused to cooperate). He demonstrated the digerydoo . . .

and the boomerang.

Road Trip VIII

Ahhh, the beautiful Grampians. This nice map had a photo of what we were supposed to see from this scenic lookout . . . .

And here is what we actually saw . . . fog.

And we saw quite a bit of rain, with a nice waterfall.

Emu holiday park--with actual emus!

Road Trip VII

After the caves we went to the Coonawarra wine region in SA, best known for its reds, in particular it's cabernet. We managed to stop at about 6 of the near 20 wineries on about a 20K stretch of road.

On our way home we stopped at the Grampian mountain range back in Victoria.

Education/visitors center in the Grampians

Road Trip VI

We made a stop in Naracoorte, South Australia to see some caves! They have both fossil caves and a bat cave, but being winter here there aren't many bats around. Apparently they can't let you in the bat cave because of the amount of bat guano (poo). But they did show us some nice footage, and we ended up seeing a few bats in another cave--Southern Bent-Winged Bats, to be exact.

Fossil skeleton of extinct carnivorous marsupial that roamed Australia about 50,000 years ago.

Stalagmites AND stalactites!

Road Trip V

We spent our second night in Penola, South Australia. We stayed in a room above the local pub, the Royal Oak Hotel. Like many Aussie pubs this had some "pokies", aka slot machines. After a $10 loss we threw in the towel.

We stopped for lunch in Mt. Gambier, South Australia. After some fish and chips we checked out the local attraction--a giant sink hole in the middle of town.

They've made the hole into a nice park. Pamela did some ballet moves as I photographed from some stairs into the sink hole.

Mt. Gambier also has a volcanic crater--quite a town!

Road Trip IV

Um, Cheese World? Enough said.
Cape Bridgewater, Victoria

Wind farm and "petrified forest" near Cape Bridgewater. Apparently formations actually caused by wind, water, and sand.

Road Trip III

Ok, I admit it, I am enamored with the Aussie wildlife. Took Pamela to the Tower Hill Nature Reserve where I also took Matt when he was here. Pamela and I walked around straining our necks looking high up into Eucalyptus trees for about an hour trying to spot a koala. Then we walked by this little guy hanging out in a tiny tree right at eye level. And lots of kangaroos, of course.

We spotted this echidna on the side of the road, looks kind of like a porcupine.

"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree . . ."

Road Trip II

Requisite stop at the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road. Still took my breath away on second visit.

It was a little windy . . .

Road Trip

Pamela and I set out for 4 days on a road trip through Victoria and into South Australia. We left Duncan behind as he had to work, and also vote on Saturday--if you don't vote in Australia you get fined! p.s. 9 days later and still no Prime Minister . . . there is some sort of "tie", deja vu 2000!

We started on the Great Ocean Road and stopped at Erskine Falls in Lorne, VIC. Those are our banana peels, as most tourist spots in Oz do not have bins and inform you to "please take your rubbish with you".

Pamela attempting to get a shot of a flock of cockatoos in Lorne.