How Much Can A Koala Bear?

Did you know?

• The koala is a marsupial, not a bear.
• A baby koala eats its mother's feces.
• The male koala has a forked penis and the female koala has two vaginas.
• Koalas sleep up to 20 hours per day.
• Chlamydia is the top public health problem for the koala population.

Great Ocean Road

I took a day tour of the Great Ocean Road which stretches along the southeast coast of Australia. The road was modeled after California's Pacific Coast Highway and gave work to a lot of soldiers returning from WWI.

It was a long day of driving and looking. Don't get me wrong - it was very pretty, but it kind of looks like every road in New Zealand. I'm afraid I've become immune to dramatic coastal scenery. Yes, I'm a spoiled brat.

The highlights:

• A beautiful rainbow
  
• The 12 Apostles - a collection of 8 limestone stacks. The other 4 have been washed away.


• London Bridge - A limestone arch that's been hollowed out due to erosion. It used to be a "bridge" to the mainland, but the middle part collapsed in 1990. Two tourists were left trapped on the rock in the right of the picture and had to be rescued by helicopter. The event received a lot of media attention, which was too bad for the tourists because they were both married to other people and had called in sick to work that day. Oops! Moral of the story: If you're having an affair, go to a motel.

• Bell's Beach - one of the most famous surfing beaches in the world. It was amazing to see what these guys can do with a board. It really, really made me want to be a surfer. I've always had a good balance, so I may give it a go this summer.

Fun fact: To reach the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne, we drove through the town of Geelong, home of Portia DeRossi (aka: Mrs. Ellen DeGeneres) and Nathan Deakes, who is... as we all know... the world's top race walker.

Melbourne Has Funny Traffic Rules

A Walk Through Time

I took a walking tour of Melbourne's Federation Square on Tuesday. The city's main public square is only about 10 years old and its very modern buildings are quite controversial. When I bought my ticket, the woman said, "It's just going to be you and 20 men. Is that okay?" Um, that's pretty much my dream tour.

We had to walk quite a ways to meet these men, and the lady kept trying to talk me out of it. "You know we have another tour at 2pm... they're a probus group... are you sure you're going to be okay?" I was starting to wonder if it was a group of ex-cons. It turns out probus is "an association for active retirees who join together in clubs, to keep their minds active, expand their interests and to enjoy friendship." These men were all age 70+. For some reason, the tour guide put me in charge of collecting their tickets. This caused much confusion because they thought I was a guide-in-training.

Once that misunderstanding was cleared up, we had a grand old time. The men were really interested in where I was from, what I thought of Australia, why I was traveling, etc. They were on a day trip from a town about 30 minutes outside of Melbourne so they had lots of stories about growing up in the area. One man told me about taking the train into the city with his dad in the 1930s to watch cricket matches. Another tried to explain the old layout of the city. Another talked about the pubs he used to visit in the good old days. I was informed about the top sites to see and the best place to play the pokies. It was great! I learned just as much from these guys as I did from the tour guide.

As we parted ways, one gentleman told me: "The Aussies and Yanks have always been great mates, so we're glad to have ya here." And I was happy to be had.

Newsflash - Thailand Health Alert

Let's forget about Australia's dangers for a moment and re-visit Thailand's dangers. It seems that I got out just in time. Two devoted readers have alerted me to the this article about the mysterious death of a 27-year-old American blogger (not me!). Her fiance put her in a luggage cart and tried to wheel her to the Phi Phi hospital, but it was too late. (Any of this sounding familiar, Kelly??)

More bad news -- you'll remember that I told you my friend Caroline fell ill while we were together in Phuket. She was not pregnant. She did not have swine flu. She had DENGUE FEVER. I just found out she was in a Thai hospital for a week after I left her. She is doing better, but has been advised to consider returning to Ireland for a full recovery. I fired up Google just as soon as I heard this news. I wanted to make sure the disease was not contagious considering that I shared a bed and water bottle (you can't even use tap water to brush your teeth) with her for 3 days. It appears that I'm safe.

Thailand... the gift that keeps on giving.

Australian Dangers

Giant sheep... and I thought this only happened in New Zealand

Giant jellyfish

Giant spiders

Giant falling trees

Surfing at Squeaky Beach

From the frosty mountains, we moved on to the sunnier locale of Wilson's Promontory National Park. The National Park lost thousands of acres of land to the Victoria bushfires in February. For miles, the road was surrounded by nothing but burned tree stumps. It was very eerie.

The Park lost a lot of forest and wildlife, but Squeaky Beach is still going strong. It was a bit too chilly to ride the waves, so we had to improvise.

Australian Alps

And I thought Australia was full of sun and surf!

It is definitely autumn here, and it is already winter in the Australian Alps. We did a 10 mile hike to the top of Mount Kosciusko, the highest point in all of Australia. It was a very cold 33 degrees Fahrenheit. I had to borrow a long-sleeved shirt from someone. Parts of the track were completely covered in snow. Sometimes you would take a step and sink down to your ankle.

When we finally reached the top, we could see... absolutely nothing. Refer to picture #2. Things started to clear up on the walk back down the mountain and we got some decent views. Refer to picture #3.

Cheers Mate!

I visited the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales and the resort town of Thredbo. When you stay in a ski lodge in the off-season, you have to find creative new ways to use skiis.

Canberra

I visited Canberra and toured Parliament house. Other than that, not much going on in Australia's capital city. They say not to go to the bathroom before you arrive... that way you'll have something to do once you get there.

Fun Fact: Do you know why the kangaroo and emu are pictured on the Australian coat of arms? They are the only 2 native animals that cannot move backwards. Symbolically, this means that Australia is always moving forward.

From the Land Down Under

I have finished my 3 day tour from Sydney to Melbourne, and now I'm hanging in Melbourne for a few days. As expected, the tour was a great way to meet people. We had a small group of 10, and 6 of us were traveling solo. Turns out there isn't all that much to see between Sydney and Melbourne, but we still had a blast.

Along the backcountry roads, we saw plenty of wallabees and kangaroos hip-hopping around!