Guest Blog from Marg ...

As I think about the wonderful time I had in Australia, certain memories come back to me. Here they are in no particular order.

Driving from the Gold Coast to Agnes Water (in case you can’t find it on a map, Agnes Water is right beside 1770). The rain started in earnest just about dark. Abigail was at the wheel as we drove through what was a good facsimile of a car wash – for hours. We stopped in Gympie to get gas, and it was here that the man behind the counter, for no particular reason, helpfully told Kevin that if someone comes up behind you and puts a plastic bag over your head, don’t grab the part of the bag around your throat. Instead reach up to the top of the bag and break it open. Make sure to file this one in “essential things to know”.

With no regrets we left the gas station, and the intrepid Abigail continued on through Gin Gin where we saw a woman making a phone call but decided not to stop. Then on through Marion Vale and finally to Agnes Water.

It wasn’t until the trip back that we realized that we had been driving through literally thousands of acres of sugar cane.

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In Agnes Water we met Chris, an expat from England who now rents a shack for $18.00 a day, goes crab fishing in the day and drinks Stone’s Ginger Wine by night. He invited us all to his shack the next morning at 5:00 to take us crabbing with him. Kevin was fairly certain that Chris would forget all about our great time at the pub, and greet us with a shotgun blast to the head.

Perhaps it was the romance of the Charles and Camilla wedding (the woman hosting the coverage for Australian t.v. wore an evening dress and diamonds, and had a bucket of chilled champagne in front of her – take that Mansbridge!), but I did go to Chris’s crab shack the next morning at five a.m. As we sat sipping ginger wine on the beach I realized that the injury to my head from the Scooter Roo accident had been more severe than I had thought. As soon as Chris slumped forward in an early morning stupor I made tracks back to safety of the hotel. I’m still trying to forget him. Ouch! My head!

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Seeing the Southern Cross for the first time on a wonderfully clear night in Bicheno, Tasmania. Even more than water going down the drain the other way, or having the noonday sun in the north instead of the south, this brought home the fact that I was in the Southern Hemisphere.

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The gardens of Melbourne, Hobart and Sydney, filled with roses and lavender and geraniums that form enormous bushes, because the climate allows is so temperate. Also, the trees of Australia are splendid. Is there anything more exotic than a herd of sheep relaxing under a muna tree? Well, is there?


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Marsupials in general. They are all so different - from Tasmanian Devil, to Wombat, to Kangaroos. Yet they all have that pouch thing going. And they all have little hands too. How did they figure all of this out? I read that if you have the misfortune to hit and kill a marsupial you should immediately check the pouch in case there is a baby in there.

At the Taronga Zoo in Sydney I saw an orphaned baby wombat named Iza. She was asleep and her head was drooping to her fat little belly. I believe she is the most adorable creature I have ever seen. If you want to see a great picture of a wombat, google Brutus the Wombat. The picture of a happy wombat (Brutus) is bound to cheer up even the most gloomy-guts.

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Sitting in my hotel room in Sydney I had a view of the Opera House clear across to Elizabeth Bay. Between the Opera House and our hotel lay the Botanical Gardens. On each of the three evenings we were there, just at dusk, huge brown bats rose out of the Gardens and flew right past our windows toward Elizabeth Bay. They flew so close to my window that I could have reached out and touched them. That was something.

I also saw them as I walked through the gardens one morning. They hang from the trees, and fly around during the day as well as at night.

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Puffing Billy, the steam train that goes up the Dandanong Mountains was a fun trip. It is run by really enthusiastic volunteers. We were in the dining car, but the
“B” cars are open and you can sit with your legs and arms hanging out. I have a picture of us going over t pretty high trestle and the cars at the rear are full of kids half hanging out of the train. All the volunteers had said was “Don’t let the kids fall off!”

I gather that Aussies are not the suing type. Safety, along with attitudes in general (except for the Footie), seem to be quite casual. Good on ya!

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Kevin and I trying in the midst of a rainstorm to see the sights of the Great Ocean Road. We seemed to be just ahead of the storm, so that we would arrive at the next scenic spot, get out of the car and run to the view. Every time we got to the view the rain would roll in and soak us. But on we pressed, I’m sure for my sake, because, of course, Kevin was coming back. Thanks, Kev. You’re brave!

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In Williamstown (near Melbourne) there is a pub that celebrates the sinking of the Titanic. It’s called the “Titanic Entertainment Emporium” and features a mock-up of the great ship going down on the roof of the pub van. There is also another mock-up of the ship on the roof of the pub. Unfortunately the place wasn’t open when we were there so I can’t tell you much fun it would be to celebrate the watery demise of hundreds of victims. I guess it would depend on much alcohol one has consumed.

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I had lunch with Russell Crowe. He’s up for the lead role of Gilligan in the new feature film “Gilligan’s Island”. He wondered if it was too much of a stretch. But I said “Crikey Russ! It’s the opportunity of a lifetime. You gotta take it!”

That’s the way I feel about my trip. The Opportunity of a Lifetime. Thanks to Abigail and Kevin for making it happen.

As Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage, but Australia is a whole nuther place”.