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...