Australian Adventure!: Interlude, Friday, March 18,Day 5

One thing I looked forward to seeing in Australia was the night sky. At Fort Campbell we saw the Milky Way washed across the sky and identified the Southern Cross, Orion and the Scorpion. The days have been sunny and pleasant for the most part. Here are some impressions: the sun is bright and sunglasses and wide-brimmed hats are helpful. The Australian accent is pleasant to hear. School kids wear uniforms, the boys in shorts, jackets, and hats, the girls in dresses. Petrol is very expensive. Food is very expensive. Entrance fees into museums and such is expensive but the children's rate (much less) applies to children under 16. It's nice that kids are kids through age 15 instead of 11 like so many places in the states. We road the train from Melbourne to Mt Waverly and it was very nice. The train station downtown busy but clean and very efficient. Melbourne is a bigger, busier city than I expected. Lots of bikers zig zagging through heavy traffic. I got use to cars driving on the left side pretty quickly. Tim let me drive his car (manual) for a while in the country. I kept reminding myself to stay left, stay left and take it easy on the turn-abouts, and remember to use my left hand to change gears.

We spent the afternoon today at the Healesville Sanctuary. The emus are in-your-face curious but not dangerous. Their feathers are thick and soft. The dingos are bigger than I expected and are very beautiful animals. We got close up to the koalas and kangaroos and wallaby's. The kookaburras are big, fluffy birds with a wild laughter-like call and the bats were awake and active up-side-down on the nets showing off their huge wings. Here are a few photos: