Sometimes life is so hard. To get to Nauru on the proposed date, I had to fly to Australia. However, I missed that date and flew to Nauru directly from Fiji three days later. But, my return flights remained the same and for the first time in all my travels, I came to a land “down under”.
I keep track of the countries I have visited. Some of them are no longer countries (East Germany and Czechoslovakia). Some of them were really colonies at the time (Macao and Hong Kong). And depending who you talk to, one of them never, ever was a country. (Transnistria) They all count as far as I’m concerned. So, this first trip to Australia is memorable for lots of reasons. But, perhaps the most remarkable is the fact that it is country number one hundred on my list of places visited. It’s been a long time coming.
My flight was to Brisbane, with a brief connection on to Melbourne. However, there was one little glitch in my scheduling. I didn’t notice that my departure wasn’t an “AM” flight. Nope, I had a twelve hour delay in my plans and a surprise day in Brisbane.
I thought maybe it would be good to spend the day at the hotel attached to my computer. I’d been Internet deprived for most of three weeks. However, the woman who ran my hotel didn’t agree with that at all and wasn’t afraid to say so. She sent me in the direction of a lovely boat ride from the airport to the center of town. The skies were blue, the sun warmed up, and I had to agree that the woman knew better than me. And, she liked hearing that.
I teamed up with a fellow wanderer in Melbourne. I met Shane while painting a mural in Albania. He tried to help me get involved with an international mural competition in Tasmania, Australia. Alas! I was not invited to participate. And, I’m not so very forgiving. They will never get another entry from me and they just don’t know what they’ve missed. That event was this past Easter, while I painted murals in Liberia. I never dreamed I’d set foot in Australia just five months later. Yep, the universe has some wonderful surprises at times.
Shane said there was absolutely one thing that I had to see while in his part of the world, the Twelve Apostles. My list was a little different and a whole lot harder to do. I wanted to see kangaroos in the wild. A friend of mine in Ohio considers deer to be rats with antlers. I think that kangaroos are in the same category, rats with pouches. Neither “rat” is all that easy to locate when you want to find them.
The Twelve Apostles are dramatic rock formations along Australia’s southern shores. The beaches were lined with towering cliffs. The apostles, formed by the constant erosion of the waves along the coast, stood as columns in the waters by the shore. The waves continue to pound, and they have successfully caused a few of the apostles to fall.
It’s possible – though not recommended at all – to see the Apostles on a day-trip tour from Melbourne. Vast hoards of tour buses arrive at the park around two in the afternoon. Even with winter’s chill, it’s still the top attraction in the state of Victoria. I, fortunately, spent the night at a bed and breakfast in the nearby countryside and arrived at the feet of the apostles several hours before the trippers.
And, there was another reason why I was happy to stay at that inn. The owners knew I wanted to see kangaroos. On occasion, kangaroos and koalas roamed on that very farm. But, it was cold and damp. Very cold and damp. Too cold and damp to go wandering unless success was guaranteed.
There were no guarantees.
However, just before leaving, the owner popped in to suggest another little village that we never would have considered otherwise. If I was going to see kangaroos in Victoria, this was most likely the place. So, it had to be explored.
A local connection, anywhere, is always a valued treasure when traveling. I guess nobody ever told the tour buses about our secret destination. They were nowhere in sight. And, I’m not spilling this secret because I’d hate to see it ruined. And, it would be ruined.
Yes, I saw kangaroos.
This location had a mob (yes, that’s what they’re called) of about six or eight kangaroos just over a small hill. They were close enough to photograph, but certainly too shy to let me get nearly as close as I’d like. Then, I spied a mob scene in the distance. It was about 35 to 40 kangaroos! Shane had never seen so many together in the wild. I was so very pleased on a trip that was mostly a rerun experience for him that he shared this great Aussie moment.
The trip down under was short and sweet. I find it better to stay too short than too long. And, after three weeks of muraling in Fiji and Nauru, I was ready to go home. But, it was a very memorable time in Magnificent Melbourne. Number one hundred did me well.
I’m kind of hoping that my next one hundred countries doesn’t take quite so long. And, I have an extra day to start the process. I left Australia at 10:00 AM and arrived in the US at 6:00 AM the same day. I love crossing the International Date Line!
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