The one with the stupid Dutch boy

It is March 29, and I'm still in Johannesburg. For those of you more or less aware of where I should be at what point, this will undoubtedly be a surprise, as I was supposed to be in Tanzania, near Kilimanjaro, at this point. But, here's the thing. I may look smart (well, sort of), sound smart (ehm... sometimes), and act smart (OK, rarely), I'm really not that bright... Throughout my trip, there have been two things I've guarded with my life: my iPod (mostly just because it holds all my pictures), and my passport. Yet unfortunately, I made the mistake of placing one of my wallets, the one holding my passport, in a vault at one of the backpacker hostels that I stayed at, and yes, I forgot to bring it with me as I left. They sent it up here to Johannesburg, but South African mail, though reliable, is slow. Without a passport, no flight to Tanzania, so there you have it. Just today (Thursday), I did receive the package, so I'm about to start working on getting a flight up to Tanzania. Sadly, it means that I won't get to go to the Kilimanjaro area, but only to Zanzibar. OK, well, it's not the end of the world. No worries. I'll just sit in my beautiful garden in Johannesburg a little bit longer...

It's been so long since my last post, I mean, the last "real" post, that I can't even remember where I left off, and I'll certainly be at risk of leaving out a lot here, but I'll do my best to cover everything I wanted to say. (Picture top right: me with some of my favorite staff at my Mauritius hotel/bar, Alan and Sweety. Picture left: rainbow near Simonstown, on the Cape Peninsula. Picture below to the right: seal rock, near Simonstown).

One day before leaving Mauritius, I decided to book an additional one-way trip from Johannesburg to Cape Town on the day I was supposed to land in South Africa. I'd heard stories of how awesome Kaapstad is, and only then truly realized how big this country is. So, I spent a few days down there.

Cape Town was truly fantastic, and I'm so glad I went there! On my first night in town, I went on a pub-crawl, and met an amazing group of Americans whom I hung out with pretty much all night. The street I stayed on was the busiest, liveliest one in town (Long Street), with lots of pubs, clubs, and hostels, and so that was a great night. Sadly, we didn't really get all that much sleep, but hey, I'm on holiday, right?!?

My second day, I spent a large chunk of my time planning my trip. South Africa is a quite easy country to get around in, but I figured, I have so little time, I better plan ahead. I really wanted to see Cape Town, see the coast (Garden Route and Wild Coast), and see Kruger National Park. So, the wonderful girl at the reception at the Inn Long Street (Nikki), where I was staying, helped me out a ton, and booked most trips and tickets for me, which was, of course, great!

There are basically, as I see it, four main attractions in and around Cape Town: Table Mountain, Robben Island, the Waterfront, and Cape of Good Hope. I'm happy to report I saw all of them. Table mountain (picture left) is phenomenal to look at from afar (in fact, I got quite a nice view of it from my hostel balcony!), but the views from the top are truly remarkable. It's an oddly shaped city, Kaapstad, which you don't truly realize until your so high up and get a good view of the whole thing.

The waterfront is sort of a nice, pretty, harbor-like area. I didn't think it was that different from, say, the Baltimore waterfront (or the Scheveningen boulevard, really), but the weather was nice, and a great little dixieland-band was playing in the shade of a tree, and they were wonderful. Also, I was fortunate enough to be there during a national holiday (I think it was Human Rights Day), so a large children's choir was singing some great tunes (and some of their soloists were amazing!). It made me miss Benri, and basically all of my other singing friends from the States...

From the waterfront, you can take the ferry to Robben-island, which, as I hope you all know, was where Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (and with him of course many other ANC members) were held captive for many years (18 years in the case of Mandel). The tour we got there, though short, was an incredible experience, especially since I'm a tremendous admirer of President Mandela and have read his autobiography ("Long Walk to Freedom") several times (I recommend reading this to everyone!). Standing at his cell, in the prison court yard, and in the mine where he was put to work was a very intimidating, unsettling, but powerful and almost magical experience.

I also took a day trip down to the Cape peninsula ('schiereiland' in het nederlands). We had a fantastic guide, and we made a side trip to the real 'robbeneiland' (it isn't called that, but there were a lot of 'robben', or seals in English, just lying around in the sun there), as well as another penguin beach (these were much bigger than the ones at Philip Island near Melbourne). But the highlight for me was biking around on the peninsula on mountain bikes, and going up the Cape Point as well as the Cape of Good Hope. Quite neat to think about how hundreds of years ago the Dutch VOC was already sailing around it to get to Asia, for trade etc.
At my hostel in Cape town, there were a few wonderful people staying there, so we just sat out on our balcony and hung out a lot with the four of us (Vicky from England, Cameron from the US, me, and Jenny from Germany [picture right]... that's the backpacker world for you right there!). It turns out that South Africa has many great, great tourists from all over the world, and that certainly helps make the travels much more fun!

The next day and a half, I spent traveling up the coast. Due to my limited amount of time, I sadly didn't get to spend any time at any of the "Garden Route" beaches, but I still got to see some great sights along the way. My first real stop was in Cintsa, or Chintsa (depends how well you can pronounce Xhosa!), on the wild coast. Within 5 minutes of arriving there, I found a great new friend in a girl called Arabella, a vet ('dierenarts') from Sussex, England. I only spent 2 nights there, but had a great time at the gorgeous beach and pool areas, and in the fun bar or on our little balcony (with a great view; see picture left of Arabella and me; that was actually taken at our little dorm/cottage!).

After leaving my passport in their vault, I made my way up through Durban to Johannesburg, where I only spent one (very short) night, before heading up to Kruger National Park, for a 3-day safari there. To my surprise, I met two beautiful girls from Luton (England) there, Jo and Claire, who were also on my Robben Island tour down in Cape Town, and they turned out to be great company! In fact, most of the group, including a wonderful Australian couple (Vic and Michael), was great (all of them are behind that ridiculously red/pale guy in the center of the picture on the right).

At Kruger Park, we got tremendously lucky. Sure, we had to get up in the dark at 5am every morning, but the morning drives and walks through the park were TOTALLY worth it! I was fortunate enough to see all of the "Big 5" in a single day (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, and buffalo), which is something few people can say, and of course saw lots of others as well, including some beautiful zebras and wildebeests (picture below) and giraffes quite closeby.

But overall, it was great! We stayed at a small little private tent-camp, but, with a pool(!) and hot showers, so it was a perfect mix of back-to-nature and comfort. Three days (two nights) is almost too short, I would have loved to stay there longer and spend more time there, and see more gorgeous sunrises (yes, got some pictures and videos of those too!) and sunsets, and animals, but time was running out. But, as soon as I'll get to reasonably fast Internet again I'll post plenty of pictures for you guys to see some of the amazing sights and animals and solar phenomenae. For now, I'll leave just this picture of an elephant having a spot of lunch right next to our car, really close by!

Upon returning to Johannesburg, I found out I didn't have my passport yet, so I decided to stick around for a couple more days. This worked out great, as I met a great Dutch girl (Annemiek), whom I've been hanging out with a LOT for the past couple of days. Yesterday, we joined another Dutch couple (on their way to emigrate to Australia) and went to the Apartheid museum (in the picture right, that's Annemiek sticking her head out of one of the tanks used during the 1976 Soweto uprising), and a tour of Soweto (including a walking tour through the poor, illegal settlements, at sunset). It was very fascinating and impressive.

As far as safety is concerned, yes, you have to be careful, and yes, it's a dangerous country (and especially the city of Jo'burg). But, I basically don't leave anywhere at night, the hostel drives us everywhere (including the mall), and common sense gets you a long way. I did have a small incident in Cape Town, which I didn't report earlier so as not to worry any of you, but really, nothing bad happened to me or my possessions in the end, so again, don't worry! I do hope, though, that I can get a flight out to Zanzibar as soon as possible, because I'm not sure how to entertain myself here for many more days. I have a hotel room booked there starting April 1, but hopefully I can make it out tomorrow or on the 31st. I think perhaps I'll take a diving course in Zanzibar, I'll have enough time there now, haha.

I'm sorry I haven't been posting on the blog, uploading many pictures, and responding to e-mails. Please keep sending me messages though, either through this blog (by clicking "comments" below) or by e-mail, I do read everything! It's just that, Internet is scarce, and extremely slow here, but I'm doing the best I can. I did manage to upload a little video of Cape Point, as well as a few others, and have finally finished uploading all my Mauritius pictures (and some Cape Town pictures as well), and am doing my best to get up to date. Hopefully I'll get some time (and better connections) in Zanzibar to keep you posted better.

I love South Africa, absolutely LOVE everything about it (except, of course, the crime). Cape Town is an amazing and entertaining city, the coast is beautiful, nature remarkable, and the people, and perhaps especially my fellow tourists, wonderful. I will come back here. Soon.
p.s. In the great tradition of the infamous Roel-Sunset-Pictures, I'll leave you with an image of the sun setting in one of the Shantytowns of Soweto. Enjoy!

Don't Worry!

I know, I know, it's been a really long time since my last post this time. But frankly, it's extremely hard to get computer time here in South Africa, especially since I've been traveling almost non-stop across the country. I'm hoping to get a good long post in before I leave for Tanzania. In the meanwhile, I've almost finished uploading pictures of Mauritius (yes, that's how slow the Internet is here), so check my picture site here. Also, I made another little video, not quite as exciting as the ones with the sunset, but the location (Cape of Good Hope, a.k.a. Kaap de Goede Hoop) is at the very least exciting (click here for the video)! And for now, that'll have to do. The next three days I'll be in Kruger National Park watching the animals, I'll try to get back in touch again right after that with my South African adventures!

At last...

It's hard to move on after a message like that, but really what else can you do? I don't know about "Hans would have wanted it that way", but all the same... he spent a lifetime being active in the community and bringing joy to other people, so I'm sure he won't blame me for having fun. But still.
On April 6, 1997, I met a beautiful girl in Paris. We started talking and she tells me she's from Mauritius. I thought she was confused in her otherwise flawless English, and asked her if she meant Mauritania. Nope, she said, Mauritius. And she pointed out, using her hands (like the people in Michigan) where it is. On March 6, 2007, I set foot on Mauritian soil. I am so thrilled I made it here in under ten years, and I hope I will be back in the next 9 years and 11 months!

For the most part, the country has been exactly what I expected, with one notable difference: it rains a lot here (picture left)! Inland, near the town of Curepipe, it always rains, but even along the coast you get some rain every day. Now, I don't mind the rain, even though it makes the humidity seem worse still. But the problem is that rain falls from clouds (duh), so it's clouded here a lot. I asked if it was perhaps the "rainy" season and they all looked at me surprised. This is normal.

You know you're close to the equator when: the sun sets before you realize it. One of my first days here, I wanted to walk to the north-west tip of the island, which is about an hour away, to see the sunset from that peninsula. When I left, at around 5.30 pm, the sun was still high in the sky. But by the time I got there, at around 6.45 pm, the sun had been gone for some 15 minutes already (picture right). So, short days here. Luckily I still got to catch a pretty nice sunset a few days later, as you've all seen a few posts below, and a couple more nice ones after that. I hope I can get one with some wild animal, or a pyramid in the background on the remainder of my journey, haha.

You know you're on a tropical island when: the second most lethal type of accident, after traffic accidents, are coconut-related. That's right. People (often tourists) get the "romantic" idea of sleeping under a coconut tree. But, when one of those things come down on your head from these tremendous heights, you're not likely to survive it! Nonetheless, I find it quite amusing.

The people in Mauritius are awesome. It is no surprise that the girl I met so many years ago at the Harvard conference in Paris was beautiful. The people of Mauritius are a well-aged blend of Indian, Creole, African, European, and Chinese. If there's no better argument against racism, it is that the people here are so beautiful. Speaking of racism, Mauritius should be a model for the rest of the world: Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Confucians live side by side in harmony, nobody tries to impose their thing on you, and no internal strife is visible. Take that, "developed" world!! Well, they do have a problem with the Dutch, to be honest. When the Dutch arrived in Mauritius, they killed and ate all of their national bird, the "dodo", in just 40 years time. For shame!

I stayed in the very north of Mauritius, in a town called Grand Baie. And it really is a large bay indeed (the Dutch had called it "Bogt Zonder Eyndt" when they landed here in the late 16th Century). It's a rather touristy town, and from my hotel I look out straight into the bay (picture above right is pretty much my view). The bay, however, is mostly for boats; to swim I walk just up the bay, maybe 10 minutes or so, and get a beautiful beach there. But, every day I get breakfast on my own balcony, so who's complaining about a short stroll to the beach, right?

The rest of the north is all quite nice and developed. Trou aux Biches, the infamous sunset-site, is perhaps the most popular place in the north; When you go east of here, there isn't much else beyond Cap Malheureux, the northern most point of the island.

In the east, the coast (picture left) is quite undeveloped, with not too many big (or small) hotels around. There are some notable exceptions though, and the beach around Belle Mare for example was especially beautiful. The reasons for the lack of development are simple. Firstly, there are lots of coral reefs just off the coast in the east. Though poplar with divers, this doesn't exactly make for very good swimming... The second reason, and very noticeable, is that this is the "wind" side of the island. It can get rather chilly when you're getting close to sunset (or at least, when you're getting out of the water at that time), so perhaps that's why the major developers have largely stayed away from this area.

The south is even less developed, but probably also less developable (if that's a word). The town of Mahebourg, in the south-east, is luckily not too developed yet, and you really get a sense of some long-gone African or Indian civilization there. Continuing west from there, there's beautiful Blue Bay, but not much else after that until you get to La Roche Qui Pleure, which marks the southern most site of the country (picture right). From there, you get a beautiful drive (which I did in my rented car!) to the west, all the way to Le Morne Brabant, a Gibraltar-like rock on a Peninsula with some of the most beautiful beaches.

On the west coast, of course the capital, Port Louis, is one of the main focal points. There are a fair few beautiful sights around (I especially enjoyed getting to visit the Jummah Mosque), and an old fort sits atop a hill overlooking the whole town. In fact, I went there two days in a row, just to be able to snap some night-time pictures also. Great sights and a great, extremely divers town (picture left).

Aside from the capital, the most popular, most beautiful (and most expensive) beaches are all on the west coast. La Preneuse is a great small (not very crowded) beach that I went to one of the days, while the quite amusingly named Flic en Flac is very popular, and sports some of the best beaches ever.

Getting around isn't a big problem here at all. Buses are quite cheap, but may be slow. And taxis are very expensive, mostly because gasoline isn't exactly cheap here. But the two days I rented a car were phenomenal! Sure, the driving on the left takes a little bit of getting used to, but after Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia, I had plenty of practice already! It just gives you a degree of freedom to do things and see places you wouldn't otherwise, and to just be able to pull over when you see something you like is great!

But now, sadly, my time on Mauritius (is it "on" or "in", when it's an island?) is almost over. I leave very early Thursday morning for my flight to Johannesburg. I ended up staying in Mauritius just a few days longer than I had initially planned (9 days instead of 7), but that was no problem whatsoever. Yes, 9 days is too long to do your basic sightseeing and "beaching" all the time, but to really see and experience everything I wanted to do (Mauritian life), it wasn't nearly enough time. Yes. I think I will be back. Perhaps, February 6th, 2017...

In Memoriam: Hans Lückman

I just received word that one of my best childhood friends has passed away last Friday at the age of 26, after a tragic car accident. Extremely shitty, no matter where you are.

Mochten er familieleden of vrienden van Hans dit lezen: Mijn gedachten zijn bij jullie, en bij Hans ("haas", zoals hij zelf als kleuter schreef). Kor, Jan, Anke, Jasper, en alle anderen die dicht bij Hans stonden: ik wens jullie alle sterkte van de wereld toe, en hoop dat jullie elkaar kunnen helpen deze moeilijke tijd door te komen. Hans: rust zacht, nooit zal ik de vele goeie tijden vergeten.

Live Action Sunset

I know it's been a while since the last update, for a variety of reasons. Internet is a bit hard to come by here on Mauritius, and it's quite slow, so all I'll do here is place a little movie I made. I don't think I can upload movies directly into my blog, so I uploaded them into YouTube.

Click here for the English version of the little movie.

Klik hier voor de Nederlandstalige versie van het filmpje.

I say slightly different things in both, obviously, so feel free to watch both, even if you don't understand Dutch (but perhaps find it oddly sexy-sounding... right marisp?). In any case, I'll get a 'real' update here soon, I'm also trying to upload more pictures on my photo album (click here for that), I hope you guys are enjoying the updates!

p.s. in honor of the only person who's ever named something after me (his fire-pit, in fact), I have named the gecko that lives in my hotel room here "Chris". Chris is a fast little guy (a.k.a. slippery little sucker) and always runs away whenever I try to take a picture (I think he can sense it), but below is the best I was able to get.

'Bourne Again

Many people have declared me insane, undertaking a trip like this. I have to say, so far I think I was right in doing this. Sure, I have had some interesting experiences I wouldn't necessarily describe as pleasant. Sure, I'm spending a lot of money doing this, no matter how "Dutch" I try to be. Sure, I have no idea what "adventures" Africa has in store for me. But, now that my trip is halfway over (more than that, actually... hard to believe!), I know that, well, I'm getting more out of this than I had ever imagined. Seeing some of the most beautiful places in the world, learning something new every day, about myself, about people in general, and cultures, and meeting some of the most interesting people. Including someone way more "insane" than me, a guy from London I met yesterday who is actually doing the same thing I am, only for a full year. Insanity is relative.

Friday morning, Nadine and Anthony went to the airport for their weekend at the Gold Coast. It felt a little strange staying at their place without them, but in all fairness, I appreciated the opportunity to go back to sleep. I pretty much spent the day lulling about, and biking into town (Albury) one last time (picture above left), snapping some pictures. Biking on the left side of the road was a new experience, but it all was fairly straightforward, really. In the evening, I hitched a ride to Melbourne with one of Anthony's colleagues, Steve, who is actually from New Zealand, and we had a fun time on the ride down (and one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen, or at least, while driving! See picture above to the right). I got to Melbourne late, started to plan my next day in town, and then hit the sack.

I felt well-rested enough that I wanted to spend the next day walking around Melbourne for as long as I could. Which turned out to be quite long; I didn't return 'home' until about 1 in the morning... I first walked over to the sports district. Melbournians (Melbourners? Melbournites?) are sports crazy, even more than Australians in general! The most popular sports are Aussie Rules (sort of a cross-over between rugby and soccer, simply put) and cricket, but also rugby itself (two completely different kinds!) and swimming are popular (later this month the world championships are held here, with our own Pieter v/d Hoogenband one of the contenders, especially with the "Thorpedo" gone). The sports district for me, however, was primarily about Rod Laver Arena, where every year in January the Australian Open tennis championships are held (picture right). Sadly, the Arena itself was closed for volunteer training, but I still got to peek into court one and tred onto courts 5 and 7, where many local youths were practicing games. Also in the same area are the giant Melbourne Cricket Ground (where also many of the Aussie Rules games are held), the Vodaphone Arena, and the Olympic Stadium (where the Melbourne Victory soccer team plays). Unfortunately, there are no Aussie Rules games in town while I am here, but I saw some of it on TV the other day, and it's not like I'd understand the rules any time soon (they seem to fumble the ball a lot!).
After all this, I stayed on the southbanks of the Yarra river, and strolled along St. Kilda Rd, and the botanical gardens. Some readers of my blog may be surprised how many gardens I've gone to see in Japan and China and Australia, and perhaps I myself am most surprised, seeing as this was never something I was too interested in or particularly cared about before. But I've found that the tranquility of a beautiful garden is a great remedy for tired feet on a long day of walking, and the scents and sights of these gardens are much more beautiful when you actually look up and around. That's something I'm finding out in general, not just about gardens or parks: I love natural beauties. Whether it be a gorgeous soft beach or a rocky one, a beautiful sunset or randomly dispersed wildflowers, kangaroos or wombats, these are some of my favorite things. As I'm sure you can tell by the many pictures of all of the above.

I lunched at the Crown casino complex, which was once (briefly) the largest casino in the world, or so I'm told. After lunch I crossed the river and hit the downtown area. The architecture is quite magnificent and tremendously diverse. On my photo site I tried to capture the beauty of this city in its diversity (two examples right, and left above). There have traditionally been many quarrels between the peoples of Sydney and Melbourne. My objective touristy point of view is that Sydney is more obvious in its beauty, and therefore probably more accessible to passing tourists such as myself. But at the same time I think that Melbourne does have a lot going for it, it's just more subtle and requires perhaps a longer stay. Throw in the climate which is nicer (cooler) in Melbourne and I think this would make a great town to live in.

For dinner I went into the newer area of the Docklands, and I picked just about the best place I could have picked; a restaurant called Meccah Bah, where they served me some of the most amazing Turkish / Middle Eastern food I have ever had! OK, I drank an Australian beer with it, but still... Just in time for the sunset over the harbor (picture above left), I took off to go to Rialto Towers, which is the tallest building in Melbourne, but really it didn't seem all that high; the observation deck is at the 55th floor. In any case, I managed to catch the tail-end of the sunset, and am glad I did, the sight was truly magnificent and awe-inspiring (picture right). People were actually still talking about that sunset the next day, including some true Melbournians I met, saying it was good even by their (undoubtedly high) standards! I ended the day with a movie, the Good Shepard. Talk about a downer movie, but I'm still glad to have seen it, I have become mildly (and just mildly) obsessed with US politics in the 50s and 60s.

Melbourne is definitely the farthest south I have ever been, but just how far south, I realized fully on Sunday, when I took a trip to Philip Island to see the penguins. Basically, I booked a seat on a day-tour there, and I feel like I definitely got my money's worth. First stop was a winery, and even though I had already been to a couple of Rutherglen wineries, it was still fun to stop over and sample some more! We had a fun busride, with an American couple, one English bloke (the year-long world-traveler mentioned at the top), three Irish girls, three Chinese girls, and two more English girls actually working in Melbourne.

The next stop after the winery was at the koala conservatory. There we saw a great bunch of animals, including baby wombats pic above left). All baby animals are called "joeys" in Australia (as I found out after wondering aloud why they apparently named all animals the same name and whether it had something to do with TV-show Friends), although I'm not sure I'm spelling that correctly. Cute as the baby-wombats are, apparently they become quite vicious at around 2 years old, which is their way of telling their conservators that they're ready to be set free once more. Koalas on the other hand can not be set free if born in captivity (that's actually true for most animals in Australia). Sadly, in the state of Victoria, you're not allowed to hold the koalas, since they're too big and WILL scratch you quite severely... but I still got a lovely picture out of it with a sleeping koala (they eat 4 hrs a day, and sleep the other 20 hrs... literally!). I've clearly (also) become mildly obsessed with local wildlife, and can't wait to go and see more of this in Africa (Kruger National Park, for example). We also saw some alpacas (they're every bit as funny looking as I thought they would), Tasmanian devils (they were separated because they would attach each other constantly) and even a mommy kangaroo with a joey-roo still in its pouch (picture left)!

The rest of the day consisted of us going to several different beaches on Philip island where, indeed, plenty of penguins habitate. The latest estimate is that the colony holds some 20,000 penguins(!), of the smallest kind actually. At "seal rock" you could see seals lying in the distant (too far for good pictures but you could see them with binoculars), and penguins were lulling about under the boardwalk that we were walking over (picture right). After that we went to the actual penguin observatory. Sadly, taking pictures was prohibited altogether, but man... what a sight!!! This is an absolute must-see for anyone who loves penguins (Marc?)! As dusk settles in, the penguins come out of the water, after having spent several days there, eating (3 times their own body weight, typically), and now return back home to their holes in the dunes. Hundres and hundreds of penguins will walk less than 1 meter away from you along the beach, it is truly phenomenal to see this. They are remarkable creatures, not in the least disturbed by people all around them (or the giant wallaby right next to them), and yes, they walk funny too!

Now I'm in my last 24 hours in Melbourne. I've actually checked out of my hostel already; that way, I can get a room closer to the airport, so I can get an extra hour and a half of sleep tomorrow morning before my (almost 12-hour long) flight to Mauritius. Which, by the way, was first settled on by the Dutch in the 16th century (it's named after Prins Maurits van Nassau!). In any case, I'm extremely looking forward to my 8-or-so days there; I'm hoping to see the whole island in a whirlwind tour, I hope I'm not getting my hopes up too high, but I don't see how there's any way around this, having wanted to go here for almost 11 years now... As for Australia, it's an extremely pleasant country, and not only a very recommendable tourist destination, but certainly a place I could see myself returning to for a longer period of time as well.

Of Wine, Cheese, and Roos

Canberra is quite a 'dead' (lifeless) city on Sunday nights. I walked around to find a place to eat, but about half of them were closed, and if it weren't for the many modern and magnificent buildings, I would have thought I were somewhere in the wild west during the gold rush on the verge of a pistol-duel... No one out on the streets. But, I found a place to eat all the same, and then shared that last post with you all.

Monday morning isn't that much more alive, really; perhaps that's the curse of a politicians' town. But, after buying my bus ticket to Albury first thing in the morning, I had a couple of hours to kill, so I opted for a big breakfast, and then a long stroll around the lake. It was quite beautiful, as was the weather (again), though it ended up being quite the walk once more. I was fortunate enough to see the large fountain in action; a 10 tonne column of water sprayed some 146m (about 430') up in the air; it didn't mention anything about being the tallest fountain in the world, but it has to be way up there... literally (see picture right)! In any case, another well spent morning, good thing I had to get up to buy my bus ticket and check out of the hostel, I've slept in too many times already while in "Ozzie-land".

The busride to Albury was uneventful, which is how I like my traveling (as you all know by now I'm sure), and Nadine picked me up from the beautiful station (no pictures yet, hope I'll get some before I leave). It's always wonderful to see friends, but Nadine has been a bit of a little sister to me during my time in college, and seeing as I hadn't seen her since her graduation in 2002, it felt quite special. We've talked and talked for hours and hours about things we did then, people we knew then, our lives, loves, dreams, hopes, careers, and goals, and it's great to have a feeling of 'home' in a place that's as far from home as can be, just about.

We went out with a group of radiologists (Anthony, Nadine's boyfriend, is a radiology fellow here), and I at last ate my first kangaroo steak while in Australia. Quite delicious! On Tuesday, we (well, I) wasted most of the morning being asleep (sound familiar?), and then talked the day away until it was pretty much time for lunch. After lunch, we got some tourist information, and then went out to Lake Hume. Funny, in Holland, in summer, that's when things bloom, and grow. In Australia, in summer, that's when things whelk, and die. It is simply too dry here. The grass is all dead, as are many trees. So, Lake Hume too had very little water in it; the measuring poles indicating water levels were hovering some 10 or 15 meters above the actual water level (picture above right). The dam and powerplant were still operational, but it was a bit sad looking.

On Wednesday, Nadine and I went up north to Ettamogah. We first visited a wildlife sanctuary, Oz E Wildlife (get it?). There were many sick and injured and hurt 'local' animals there, though the penguin with one foot only felt oddly out of place... But, the great thing about this place was that we got to walk around in the same area all the kangaroos and wallabies and similar animals all lived, and we got to feed them. Some of them (mostly the smaller ones, which we dubbed the "teenagers") were quite anxious to get the food from us, others preferred to just lay in the sun. There was only one wallaby who was scared of us and didn't eat from our hand. But he / she was probably just a baby, seeing as he was tiny! But overall, I loved it, they were so friendly and fun and cute!!! They mostly hop on their back legs, but when they want to walk slowly, they use their front paws as well. But because those are so short, they always look like they're trying to sneak up on you! But they mean no harm, are cuddly as hell, and I'm glad that this place takes care of so many of them! Sadly, the koalas had just been fed when we got there, so they were pretty much gearing up for a good, long nap. But, one of them was still half awake and kept cleaning himself as we were there. They're the cutest and cuddliest of them all (and, the dumbest!). Many more animals were there, mostly just walking around freely; as always, many more pictures are on my picture-site.

After that we went to the famous Ettamogah pub. This pub lays claim to being the "most photographed pub in the world", though I would imagine that Cheers in Boston may be able to claim that title also. In any case, I could see why: it is a real-live version of the Ettamogah pub from the Ken Maynard comics. Plus, all the various signs around the pub were hilarious; many of them are on my picture site at http://picasaweb.google.com/rlanen/ (my favorite sign was "Free Beer Tomorrow").

Australian wines have been up-and-coming in recent years, from what I understand since about the early 1990s especially. The area around here (more specifically, around Rutherglen, which is an hour further inland, a.k.a. further West, of Albury) is particularly well-known for its wines. So, we did a "wine tour". Well, we ended up really only making it to 2 wineries in the day, because we found a lot of great wines (especially at the first one, which was housed in a pretty little castle, in the picture below, and it also had a cheese shop! I had died and gone to heaven!!). Of course, I couldn't help myself and also bought some, so I'll have to figure out how to take that with me somehow. But, as they say here in Australia, "no worries, mate!"

Right about now, Nadine has a job interview, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well for her with that. Tomorrow I'm catching a ride to Melbourne with another radiologist-friend of Anthony, Steve, and will spend my last couple of days in Australia there, before flying towards Madagascar but then plummeting down before that, towards a tiny speck in the giant water surface. To be continued...