My parents arrived last Thursday and since then it has been one non-stop puddle-hop. On their one night in Melbourne, I showed them the sights and gave them a grand tour in the pouring, FREEZING rain.
Then, we started our great Australian adventure in Kyneton, a tiny Australian bush town. We stayed at a wildlife sanctuary and saw tons and TONS of kangaroos, parrots, Aussie magpies and wallabies (including some babies much to my mother’s delight). We also made friends with a local possum my mother aptly named Apple. AND I found the largest mushrooms I have ever seen. They were circling a large eucalyptus tree and were easily easily four feet tall each!
We also visited Bendigo where one of the area’s gold mines had been shut down and renovated into a tourist exhibit. We were able to go down into the mine to about thirty feet under the surface and watched as our tour guide (who looked stunningly like Richard Gere) operate the old, prop machinery in the tunnels. Then we got a chance to mine for gold ourselves, in a little gold panning setup they had on the property. It was great fun. The water was hand-numbingly cold (I should know) and only my mom found the yellow specks everyone was searching for, but that’s never what trully matters in the end.Â
One day, I begged my parents to take me on the Great Ocean Road, which stretches along the coast of at least Victoria (I don’t know how much farther). It was incredible. It was drizzley and cool and the water was slate grey–the perfect Ocean Road color. We saw the 12 Apostles and stopped in for lunch in Apollo Bay.
Finally, on Thursday I returned to Melbourne to take my final final–for Microbiology and Immunology. I think I aced that three-hour exam and deservedly I celebrated with my friends and my parents at my favorite local pizza joint, Bimbo’s. Yesterday, we arrived in Port Douglas, which is north of Cairns in Queensland. It’s seven hours south of the tip of Australia, which we plan to visit in the coming days. Although prices have quadrupled in the last five years, the town is still as laid-back and fun-loving as ever. I love it here. Today, we took a trip up to the Daintree rainforest and hiked several trails into the mangroves and walked a few miles on beautiful golden beaches. The beauty and intricacy of nature, especially here, never ceases to amaze me. There are few places more exotic and still so connected to the modern world. Even now I miss the misty green hills and crocodile-harboring streams of the Daintree. We saw a massive spider and ate ice cream at the Daintree Ice Cream Company.
The entrance sign across the river, in the Daintree!
…a croc-infested river…
Oh…and I also ran into a ninety-year old man named Kenny that I befriended back when I was fifteen. He’s still kickin’ it, dancing up a storm with all the lovely young ladies and he’s still as sweet as ever.
hum in the forest,
Jordan
Quote of the week:
“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.”
- Charles M. Schulz
Well Hey,
I am not familiar with your blog, but I had noticed that in this blog about your trip around Australia, you included my hometown of Kyneton, so I went through and read your blog, and found myself laughing when you brought up Kyneton. I thought, ‘Wow, Kyneton? Tiny little bush town?’
I thought this, because to me, Kyneton was a small town, but it wasn’t so tiny, it was a major town of Central Victoria! But recently I’ve moved to Texas and found out that, yes, Kyneton is tiny.
Anyway, I was curious about a few things, did you stay in the Bushland Resort? Did you get to see Black Hill? And last of all, you do know know that those “biggest mushrooms you have ever seen” were wooden…? The person who owns that property liked to carve things.
Hope you enjoyed Kyneton (I would ask what you did there… cause there isn’t really that much! Haha)
and it’s always fun to hear about someone from aross the globe visiting such a tiny, out-of-the-way place. Even more so because we lived right down the road from where you were seeing those Kangaroos!
Oh, and two more things, the ‘parrots’ are called cockatoos and… of all times… you arrived in Australia when it RAINED.
Hahaha, brilliant timing!
No truely, we don’t exactly get much rain… well Queensland does, but Vic doesn’t!
Hahaha, thanks for putting up with me.