y roommates are great. At least the two I've meet. One is from China and the other from Norway. I've had good conversations with each of them separately. I hope all my roommates are this easy to get along with.
Went to Grampions National Park on a tour today. The park its about 2.5 hours from Melbourne.
Unlike the last tour, instead of families, this group is largely single, and even better, mostly traveling alone. I feel less like the orphan cousin they are trying to include. Again, it was a multi-cultural group. There were people from France, Germany, Sweden, Scotland, Brazil, Australia, Korea, Japan, and China. It took 2.5 hours to reach the mountains, and everyone was quiet. Most fell asleep both coming and going.
The day started cloudy, but quickly cleared to a cloudless sky. It was a gorgeous deep blue. It was hot. I can't tell you the temperature because it's in Celsius, and I forgot tool look at how to convert. I asked one of my rooms roommates I'd it was going to be nice today, and she said yes, it will be some degrees, I don't know what. I hated to tell her that that really didn't help since I don't know Celsius. I just wantc to know rain or shine, hot or cold. No rain means bring i don't need a rain jacket, just a long sleeved shirt for nightfall. Cooler means wear zip-off pantspants, just in case . Otherwise, it doesn't matter.
The Grampion Mountains are pretty short for mountains, but that's due to their age - they're the oldest mountains in the world at over 400 million years old. they are past of a larger chain, but these mountains are only 60 by 30 miles wide.
We went to the cultural center first. I wanted to see the exhibits, but first decided to go on a walkabout with a few others to look for deer and kangaroo. Yes, deer. It seems a man imported deer to raise, then moved away. Since he didn't have time to sell them, he just let them loose in the wild. We saw some deer, but as everybody scrambled to get pictures, I got suck behind others and only got a poor picture as they were leaving. Needless to say, i got away from the group as soon as i could ago i could sneak closet.
I did get some great shots of kangaroos, including several with a Joey in the pouch looking out. I had never seen that before. My other favorite moment is when I would move and the makes would turn their heads and glare at me, as if to dare me to come any closer. Broke I knife it I realized I only had a short time to are the museum, shoo I decided to go back. But I head gotten turned around, and went the wrong easy. I ran into a couple of people as I was walking and asked if the way they were going was the way back to the cultural center, and they all said, "I don't know." What I didn't pot together until later, is they proudly meant they didn't know what I was asking. I should have figured with that many people cooking from that direction, it was the way to go, but hindsight... anyway, I found a complex of buildings and an Aussie (who understood English) cleaning upup, and he sent me straight. However, by taking the long way back, I completely missed the cultural center. But I think the handouts were worth it.
By the way, I found out how kangaroos got there name. When the Europeans came, they asked the aboriginals the name of the strange animals, and they answered, "kangaroo", which means, "I don't know."
After several lookouts, we speed at MacKenzie Falls. It wasn't the tallest I've ever seen, but it was respectable, and we could walk down to the bottom. All 260 steps. But what they don't tell you is that there 's steeply slanted sidewalks too. If these were , that stairs, it would more than double the number of steps. Loved the falls. Took off my shoes and soaked my feet in the very cold water - it felt wonderful on my hot feet.
My favorite of the other stops was the Balconies Lookout, which had the Jaws of Death. It's just a rock formation. It reminded me of a dragon head or a crocodile head. another of the lookouts was very windy - If there hadn't been a rail, who knows who would have been blown away.
Australia has the coolest trees. I need to get more pictures of them. The genus, wind, weather, etc. Make them have weird shapes.
The drive back was long. You'd think after all the time it took to get here, a 2.5 hour ride would be nothing. But it lasted forever.
Tomorrow I go to Phillips Island for sheep, penguins, and whatever else they come up with.
Random thought of the day: Don't get a manicure right before you go on a backpacking trip. The polish gets chipped, and then your hands look a mess (girl thought).
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