Singapore and Australia ( Nov – Dec 2008 ) Day 7

Sunday November 22nd

10.24am – Carlton Gardens, Melbourne

Got up about 6am and sat by the window in my room watching the sun come up over the city. I pondered over the fact that although it has cost me a lot of money to come on this trip, it is fulfilling a life long dream and that is priceless.
The experiences that I am having will stay with me forever and I am learning a lot about myself and facing long held fears such as cable cars. Having said that my spider phobia and claustrophobia have yet to be put to the test!

Went down to breakfast about 7.10 am and the waitress said “Sit anywhere you like, but there is a tour group (said in mouthed fashion) and you may prefer to sit away from them“. Classic.
Had same food as yesterday then chilled and went up to room, tidied up and left at 9.30.

I had a leisurely walk in the sunshine through the CBD (central business district) heading for the Melbourne Museum, which is located in Carlton Gardens, a park to the north of the city centre.
One thing I have noticed is there are no chavs, no hoodie gangs, no common mothers shouting at their kids in the street – works for me!
I saw a sign for the huge casino but cannot go near it because I WILL gamble all my spending money.

It took an hour to get to the museum including my usual trick of getting lost on the way. This usually occurs when I am distracted by something pretty and shiny (Chinatown in this case) and then lose my bearings.
I toyed with going in a Chinese medicine shop and asking for something to knock me out on the 20 hour flight home but would probably say it wrong and end up with an aphrodisiac instead which would not be much use but may liven up the journey!

The traffic lights system here is a bit different, you press the button and there are a series of clicks then when it is your turn to walk they go putt putt putt, but due to the wideness of the streets with the tramlines in the middle, you do have to get a move on. Another surprise was that if you are crossing with a junction behind you on your right the cars from that road can also go – I learnt that the hard way.

When I finally arrived at Carlton Gardens there was no grand park entrance so I just wandered in and have spent a while walking through various paths and have come out to a large fountain in front of the very grand Royal Exhibition building which was built in 1880 and is now used for trade shows etc.

Just asked a passer by where the museum is and was told “round the beck?“. Am slowly getting used to the fact that not every statement is a question and I am not required to answer!
I could be in Hyde Park in London were it not for the possums rather than squirrels.

1.06pm – Carlton Gardens, lost on a bench

I eventually found the museum after traversing a huge car park and ploughed on until I found the main entrance facing a side street. I sometimes think if there is an awkward way of doing things I will find it!
I am now completely disorientated and lost as I came out of some sort of back way and am now sat on a bench trying to get my bearings.
I liked the museum very much, it fulfilled my two main criteria of being informative and allowing me to touch and fiddle with things.

There was a huge selection of insects and butterflies, mostly dead and mounted but not all. I took a polite interest in the displays of cockroaches, ants etc then “WHOAH! hang on a bloody minute, are those LIVE tarantulas? “ and not in some leafy camouflaged glass case but in a special room mocked up to look like an office and they were sat on a desk right up against the window. YUK.

As I approached with extreme caution I nearly knocked into a man who was stood with his back against the wall trying to breathe calmly, something tells me he didn’t expect to see them either.
Took a picture with the zoom, I could manage to look at them from a distance with plenty of space behind me for a quick exit but if one had moved suddenly I fear my language would not have been very ladylike.

I braced myself and continued through the exhibits, moving at speed, muttering “yes fine lovely” and taking note of a live huntsman on the way, they are big mothers, the ones used on “I am a celebrity, get me out of here“. It was not moving which I can just about cope with, it’s the scurrying and rushing that brings on the hysterics.
On the way out of the exhibition I noticed a huge sign saying “Warning! Live Spiders!” so I assume I went in the back way. But of course.

There was a very liberated Body exhibition with pictures and models of nude people and you could interact (not with the nudes tee hee) and see a fluoroscopy on a digestive system which was an eye opener, as was the display in the Mind exhibit which shows you what drugs do to your nervous system.

Went in a weird 3D room ,the Ames room which has a floor that looks flat as you enter but it is an illusion as if you stand one end you are small and in the other you are big.
You are encouraged to do some experiments which was fun and when you come out you can watch yourself on the rigged up camera. Maybe if I had known I was being filmed I would not have spent the time muttering to myself, it is not a flattering look.

I was suitably impressed by CSIRAC which is the only intact first generation computer left on the planet! It was built in 1949 and used in physics labs in Sydney and Melbourne until 1964.

There was also a display devoted to Phar Lap a famous racehorse whose best season was 1929 and the surprise for me was that the centrepiece of the display is Phar Lap himself, stuffed and in a glass case. How I did not burst out laughing I don’t know.

There were some Polynesian boats and also some extremely scary spirit masks from Papua New Guinea. Would have taken a pic but was too freaked, they really gave me the shivers.

Melbourne was colonised in 1835 and there was an exhibition detailing the history of the city including some reconstructed cottages which represent the type of homes that workers lived in during the 1890’s.
I love things like this where nothing is roped off you can wander round and touch stuff and try to imagine what it was like with families living in such a cramped space.

It was at this point that it hit me that this was as far as I was able to go back, there were not going to be any Stone Age knives, no Roman coins dug up from fields, or any Tudor armour or weapons.

If I wanted to learn anything about the human history of Australia before this time I was going to have to go to the Aboriginal Cultural Centre of the museum. This felt rather uncomfortable, that there are almost two distinct stories of Australia.
The history of European colonisation is an interesting one, but there is always the unsettling undercurrent of knowing that it was not always to the advantage (if ever) of the indigenous people.

Went to the museum shop and bought postcards and koala and wombat notepads then found a huge atlas which being Australian gave great details of their territories including Heard Island. I got the camera out and took pic on document mode in the style of James Bond.

As I left there was a dance troupe performing in the foyer to some sort of disco music. It was very old fashioned and very 80’s/90’s but I wasn’t sure if that was deliberate or not. Put it this way, if it was an ironic take on the genre then it was spot on.

I have a feeling that I have ended up at the top end of the park away from the city. I have walked past people playing tennis and children letting off steam in the play area, It is such a quiet and relaxing atmosphere with the park surrounded by streets full of old fashioned little one and two storey houses with lattice ironwork and verandahs.
There are no skyscrapers here and you could imagine yourself in a small town not one of the largest cities in Australia.

I am quite used to getting lost, it does not phase me but I am aware that in less than an hours time I am supposed to be on the coach for our excursion to Phillip Island.
Oh well, better try and find my way back to the big city!

6.55pm – Cowes, Phillip Island

Eventually found my way back to the museum and got a taxi back to the hotel with just enough time to spare for a coffee and snacks.
Our driver today was Ian who offered up a running commentary during our 90 minute journey to the island.
My favourite titbit was when he told us that there is a popular community festival in Melbourne which was set up in the 1950’s and in a nod to the local Aborigines the authorities asked for a dialect word meaning “lets get together and have a good time”. They were told Moomba so that is what it was proudly named. It was only in recent years that a Professor of dialects rechecked and Moomba translates as “up your bum“.

On a far less frivolous note he said the reasons there are not many Aborigines left in Victoria is that it all started off well with them being given paid jobs but after the gold rush was over, money ran out and they got paid in booze instead. This led to big drink problems and with no resistance to disease, coupled with their land being taken away they became demoralised and didn’t want to bring children up in a society that they were no part of .
So – and this is the chilling part – deliberately neglected, starved or even killed their own children. I wanted to say “Sorry, what did you just say?” but then he moved on to something else. Is this the propaganda the authorities used to justify their policy to remove children from their families?

Went through the little town of Koo wee rup, the landscape is mostly flat with eucalyptus trees which cause a lot of bush fires, apparently it is the oil in the trees that will not stop burning that causes the problems – oh I see! If the trees get too hot they literally explode.

Once we approached the island we started to use the coastal road and got some great views out the window of Port Phillip bay and went over the road bridge onto the island.
Our first stop was the Koala Conservation Centre. The aim is to keep the habitat as natural as possible while still allowing visitors a close up view.
We went up onto a series of boardwalks which are halfway up tree level and you can wander about taking photos of sleepy koalas resting in the branches and join in the chorus of “Ooh look, aren’t they adorable/cute etc.”

As koalas sleep for up to 20 hours a day finding one awake was a bit of a mission and the minute anyone found one there was soon a rush to take photos! We also saw a random wallaby in the undergrowth.

Spent a very relaxing couple of hours there then drove to the seaside town of Cowes and I popped into a fish and chip shop on the esplanade and bought flake (shark to non Aussies) and chips for $6.20 then took it to eat on a bench overlooking the bay.

Have had a pleasant stroll along the beach taking pictures and am now sat on the coach writing up my notes. We are leaving soon to go to the Penguin Parade at a beach on the south of the island.
Our tour guide Julie has just said she has never had so many people wanting to do the Neighbours tour, apparently when she told the others where I had gone a lot of them booked up for the next tour. Look at me, the trendsetter.

11.24pm Vibe Savoy Hotel, Melbourne

After leaving Cowes we drove south and stopped for a photo op overlooking the windswept Bass Straits, next stop Antarctica! It was quite exciting, the whole island has a feel of an outpost at the edge of the world.

We arrived at the Penguin Parade facility about an hour before sunset which gave us time to look round the visitors centre at various displays. There were nesting boxes that the penguins can access from outside which did give the place a bit of a pungent smell so I was glad to get out to the beach itself.

There are stone viewing terraces cut into the beach and I sat with the Cornwall 4 and found out they are two brothers and their wives who farm near Helston. We were provided with blankets and settled down to wait for sunset. Passed the time watching the sun setting and talking with the waves crashing in the background.

Heard some people behind us discussing the commercialism of it all but I had read in the visitor centre that there would be ecological disaster if the penguins were not managed properly. Visitors would still come to the beach, harming the birds and eroding the sand dunes which are their homes.
As it is, all the money made goes back into research,looking after the penguins and maintaining facilities.

The rangers explained that photography was strictly forbidden as it disorientates the penguins and a) they cant find their way back home and b) they vomit, which I feel could possibly take away some of the magic from the experience!

After about 30 minutes the rangers signalled that the penguins were coming and it was quite funny to see them all floating in the water, seemingly waiting for someone to be brave enough to go first.Apparently,one of the reasons they are so reticent is the seagulls hovering overhead taunting them like big bullies.

Finally they started to come up, in dribs and drabs at first then soon the beach was crowded with little black and white penguins waddling their way back home after a hard days fishing.
The whole thing takes about 45 minutes then once the last ones were safely off the beach we were allowed to walk over boardwalks through the sand dunes and follow them home.
This was my favourite bit as you are walking along next to them and I liked seeing their mates waiting for them at the burrows – Hi honey I’m home!

We got back to the hotel just after 11pm and as soon as I have written these notes I am off to bed. We leave at 7.30am tomorrow for our two day drive along the Ocean Road to Adelaide.

I have enjoyed today, a good mix of history,science,culture and getting out amongst the wildlife. Will be sad to leave Melbourne, it has been a good introduction to Australia but there is a lot more to discover yet, bring on the road trip to Adelaide!