The Road Home: Melbourne, Canberra and a Martian Dust Storm

Melbourne was a lovely slow weekend that spanned Thursday to Monday. Classic melbournean weather, with all four seasons plus hail. Recuperating at home over bad weather (how pleasant!), parallel char-siew tastings (a la Footscray!), visit to the Dandenongs (tulip festival!), a slow walk through Lygon street (chilli hot chocolate!), ambling thru Melb Uni (fancy shortcuts!), meeting old friends (John!), long drive to Mornington for a tipple (Pinot Noir!), visit a jazz bar (the Conglomerates!), a slow breakfast at St Ali (purveyors of fine coffee and lovely breakfast to pair!), boho crafts market, and to top off, a surprise dinner! I love culture, not to mention Mandy's mystery lambstew.

Lead-shot tower at Melbourne Central

John and I on the tram

St Ali, patron of Coffee

Mandy investigates an indulgent Mexican Cousin (fantastic fluffy fritters)

Writing on the cloth

Sky and converging tramway cables

Melbourne skyline from St Kilda pier

Sliver of a new moon, marking the seasons

Starters! Caramelized egg yolk, shatter-in-mouth bacon, proscuitto and other delectable unmentionables.

Exalted reconstituted roast pork belly.

Chicken baked in salt and hay! Soft, tender, super rich. Each bite was Brands Chicken Essence with flesh. I don't think I can look at chicken the same way again, ever!

Birthday surprise! (Two weeks early...)

After a crazy, fun, cultured weekend, we bid fond farewell to friend Mandy, and head to Canberra, the nation's venerable capital, a good seven hours away. The drive up was interesting enough (how many "five mile creek", "seven mile creek", "thirteen mile creek", etc etc etc can you spot? Is there a fibonacci sequence encoded?), and we arrived canberra after dark and checked into the YHA: crowded, rowdy (screaming school children on a school trip), and cold. What the morning brought, however, was thoroughly unexpected and spectacular: the Great Australian Dust Storm of 2009. (Click here for an account of another monumental random event, starting slide 377)

Trusty wikipedia reports: 

"From 22 to 24 September, a dust storm swept across the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland. The capital, Canberra, experienced the dust storm on 22 September, and on 23 September the storm reached Sydney and Brisbane. On 23 September, the dust plume measured more than 500 kilometres in width and 1,000 kilometres in length and covered dozens of towns and cities in two states. On the morning of 25 September 2009, red dust from the storm reached New Zealand.

The CSIRO estimated that the storm carried some 16 million tonnes of dust from the deserts of Central Australia, and during the peak of the storm, the Australian continent was estimated to be losing 75,000 tonnes of dust per hour off the NSW coast north of Sydney.

The first city to be affected was Broken Hill, which was 'blacked out' at about 3:30 pm on 22 September 2009. At least one mine was shut down. It was also witnessed in Cowra. The storm blew across Canberra and the surrounding region by midday on 22 September 2009, before being washed away by overnight hail and rain, the heaviest rainfall over Canberra in months."

How fascinating to be in the eye of the storm, waking up to a surreal pink tinge, wondering if my eyes were spoilt, or if a nuclear holocaust was taking place. Strange electric sunlight in the sky, and everything on the streets smothered with a fine pink highlight. Wandering about the national capital, with its grand vistas and sweeping linear concrete-and-steel architecture but now swabbed all in a rosy pink, one cannot but help confuse this with a martian colony on a fine day (cf. total recall). People were out, business as usual: power suits, joggers, diplomats, dog-walkers, all apparently pretending it was another regular day, that it was merely my imagination run amok. How disconcerting. 

Nature likes to remind you of her pervasive presence, politics and designs of state notwithstanding. One day incredible duststorm, followed by another day incredible hailstorm. Both historic.

Nevertheless, we duly toured the tourist trail, memorized the war memorial, parley'd the old parliament house, mused through museums and magnified the Magna Carta. Drove past consulates and embassies (snuck yummy nasi lemak snack from the malaysian embassy!), sat along Lake Burley Griffin (who, btw, amazingly had the skin to name the lake after himself, and more incredibly, the australian powersuits went ahead and inked the american architect in stone, in return for his help in designing the sad compromise of a city set in the middle of nowhere). Pretty much sums up the idiosycracies and iconoclasm in this country.

Parliament hill through the dust, at noon.

Surreal martian road to nowhere (National Museum of Australia)

Parliamentary axis shrouded in dust, Australian War Memorial

Australian War Memorial

Old Parliament House, through the arch, through the dust

Detail, Dome of the Hall of Memory

Lamps along Lake Burley Griffin

Oily looking water from the strange light

Black Mountain Tower in the background.

A dirty sunset, flags in the wind

90 000 granite discs of the Forecourt Mosaic by Michael Nelson Tjakamarra

Black swans on Lake Burley Griffin

One of four surviving 1297 Magna Carta copy

Magna Carta and translation

The Great Hall, with the Great Hall Tapestry (rear)

Stitching, detail from The Embroidery

Stitching, detail from The Embroidery

Just in case we forgot where we were... the Australian Coat of Arms on Parliament House

In the House of Representatives

In the Senate

Strange clocks abound in the place, in full synchrony.

Reflecting Pool in the Member's Hall

Apology to Autralia's Indigenous Peoples (click to enlarge)

The Commonwealth Star (or, Federation Star)

Parliamentary Axis after a powerful hailstorm following washed away the dust.

Having sorted out business in town, we left on the third day. Enough monuments to power, when obviously there was a greater power! Along the road home to Sydney, odd sights were spotted. This thereby concludes the account of my random 4700km post-thesis road trip. 

Truly memorable, simply blessed, and immeasurably grateful. Fun, Food and Friends. Thank you Lord!

Moving house?

Couldn't you just fly there?

Apollo Bay and What Happened There...

Our drive along the Great Ocean Road ended with a lovely, quiet stay over at the Apollo Bay YHA - a beautiful and thoughtfully designed eco-lodge, with fantastically equipped kitchen and clean, deep couches where one can just laze away in front of the fire. We arrived just after 8pm after a long drive through the woods, dark and tired, aghast to discover grocery shops have long closed. Thankfully, there was still a deli on the verge of closing and we managed to grab a serve of salad and a few sticks of spagetti in time.

The kitchen at Apollo Bay YHA is thoroughly equipped with every good thing - from herbs freshly plucked from the garden outside, to multiple fridges, stocked spice cabinets, to assortments of wine glasses and other respectable kitchen paraphanalia. Chef Mandy and kitchen-hand Grace set to work their gastronomic magic, while I took a quick snooze and nice shower to freshen up from a long day's drive. What a sight (and smell!) to behold when I next stumbled into the kitchen area - we had muscat raisins, orange pâté and focaccia, and pasta al dente with olive bits and wilted onions, tossed with spinached sausages and herbed wursts, together with sides of salad, washed down with german-styled riesling and a pinot noir. A feast! The sum was definitely more than its parts (and again, apologies for the lack of photographic evidence).

The adventure and amazement, though, did not just stop there, for the next, morning curiouser things were in store!

Quite uncharacteristically (for me, at least), I awoke early that morning, washed up and went for a slow stroll along the beach, talked to God and breathed and felt thankful to be alive that crisp spring mornng: the walk proved to be thoroughly invigorating and mind-cleansing.

Ambling back to the YHA, I settled in the lounge area for a read, while ambers in the fire-place lazily glimmered trying to stay awake. As far as I could tell, I was alone in the house, as other backpackers had already scampered off on their way, while Grace and Mandy were still happily dreaming in lalaland. The only other buzz of activity in the lodge was the Gilbert the Manager, a friendly grizzled sort of man, poring busily over his books, peering over his glasses and sorting out housekeeping matters.

At about 9am, a van drove up the gravel path and two men and a woman walk out, and approach Gilbert over the counter, spoke briefly and left, just as matter-of-factly as they had arrived. Not long after, I found Gilbert settling on a couch across from me, silent, as if he didn't really want to interrupt: I looked up from my book and wished him the morning. After the initial exchange of pleasantries about the morning and the lodge and the weather and the day, he hesitated, looked quizzically at me, and asked (head slightly tilted) if my friends and I had any plans for the day. (It was 9:15am by now, and any self-respecting backpacker with an agenda to fill would have been well on the road by then.) I then explained to him that it just so happened that we'd decided to take things slowly that day, and that we didn't have any plans except to visit a historic lighthouse at the very southern tip of Cape Otway, an hour's drive away. Gilbert seemed relieved, and thoughtful, and smiled.

"I have a strange request," started Gilbert, carefully choosing his words and watching my reaction, glasses in hand (he's certainly got my attention now). "Did you notice the people out of the van, just now?" he queried.

I nodded, and he continued: "well, they're from a tour company. In fact, they're sort of an unusual tour company, and they're filming a travel documentary today, right here along the great ocean road! Thing is, for some unexpected reasons, they urgently need to find a couple of extras for the shoot. In fact, they need exactly three people who're game to go on a little trek - you won't need to bring anything, or be particularly fit or have your own gear, they'll provide it all. What do you think? Would you and your companions like to give it a go? They'll pay, you know. Hundred bucks each, for your time from 10am to 2pm today. If you're agreeable, I'll call them right away, and let them know. They sound quite anxious. What about it?"

Extras? Travel documentary? I don't even watch the telly. Not aussie telly, in any case. But they're willing to pay. Hmmm. Not a usual way to start the day, at all!

I explained that while it sounded really interesting and enticing, I'd have to check with my friends. Also, we hadn't quite packed nor breakfasted! Gilbert assured me it should not be a big issue. A quick check with the two barely-lucid girls, a dash back to the front counter and a phone call later, we were engaged - professional extras at your service - and they would pick us up at 1030am! Little did we know what was in store for us that day...

It turned out that we were to be extras for a walking tour along the Great Ocean Walk, a 91km walking trail starting at Apollo Bay and ending at the Twelve Apostles. Along the way, the trail meanders through more desolate coastline and forest areas accessible only on foot. A specialty walking tour company - Both Feet Walking - was being featured by Victorian travel show Postcards on Channel Nine. What this company would do is to arrange walks along the Great Ocean Walk, equipped with an experience walking guide, outfit, safety equipment and food. Walking about 12-17km each day, guests would be picked up and sent to a exclusive ecolodge run by Both Feet Walking, to be fed and refreshed for the evening before starting again in the morning. A private hideout tucked away in the middle of the Otways forest, the lodge only accomodates 14 guests, and is fully equipped for luxury, with plush rooms and dining area with a live-in chef. Did I mention they have a foot spa? A week tour-walking with them includes the lodge stay and amounts to an astronomical figure in the upper four digits.

So there we started, pretending to be guests tour-walking the Great Ocean Walk. The van shipped us out to a remote coastal location where crew were setting up for the day's shoot. Here, we met Troy our intrepid guide for the trip, and Blair the documentary host. Troy's an incredibly experienced guide and you immediately feel comfortable with him - he's lived in the woods and the wild for a long time now, and seriously knows his way around. We stop at a cliffy edge where he refers to some aboriginal inscriptions and begins to explain the history and heritage of the area we were tramping through. And the shooting's not begun yet!

So, for the next few hours, we pretended to trek through more beautiful coastline and hidden forest trails, walking, panting, etc on command of the producer, and learning to ignore the camera. Not hard to do, especially since the natural scenery is astounding. Further, Troy was a thoroughly engaging character; one wonders how one so accustomed to living with nature would feel just as comfortably at home with strangers and nature ignorami.

Soon, we were brought on a short drive to the Lodge, and what a unexpected place it was. Quiet and serene, we were cued to walk up looking like we had done a 17km walk all day, then proceed to un-shoe ourselves and duly begin the foot spa. =) What hard work the life of an extra is!

More poking around the lodge, and we were soon invited to lunch (our second one for the day) for the shoot. Not even a pretend-lunch, a real, wholesome, serious lunch. It turns out, Har the resident chef from NZ had cooked up a feast, complete with cheese platter, mains and wine to pair! Boy, did we feel loved. That concluded the day's shoot, and they paid us 100bucks each! Never have I felt so undeserved to receive payment....

Setting up for the day's walk

Troy explaining what he does to Blair McDonough the host

forest ramble, taking a break between shoots

At the exclusive eco-lodge

Setting up a shoot at the lodge

A lovely spread for us by Har the chef!

After the lovely day outing as an extra on an exclusive walking tour, we continued on to visit the Historic Otways Lighthouse, grinning silly ear to ear, amazed at God's unsolicited favour, and mulling in His rest. Amen.

Free-range koala in the otways

Historic lighthouse, Cape Otways

What a day...!

Great Ocean Road

A hearty breakfast and a quiet goodbye to the good doctor Terence, and we leave Adelaide for the south coast. Along the way, it is another lovely drive through yet another superb wine country - Coonawarra, famous for dark velvety Cabernet Sauvignon! Alas, there is no photographic evidence of this delightful detour, as all attention was afforded to the merry tasting of lush, beautiful heady grape juice - suffice to say I was in good spirits (or more precisely, good spirits was in me!). Thanks to Paul, Wynns, Majella and Balnaves will not be easily nor quickly be forgot. =)

After a light nap, we duly cross into Victoria and hence proceed due south to the historic whaling town Warrnambool. Here, we pick up pâtissier extraordinaire Mandy, fresh off the train from Melbourne. Mandy also happens to be Grace's sister.

New trip addition Mandy

So we take a lazy drive along the Great Ocean Road, but first catch some southern right whales nursing right outside the city, right amidst surfers. Beautiful frollicking gentle giants!

Nursing southern right whale gamboling in the surf

Surfin' with em whales

The Great Ocean Road is one of the great coastal drives of the world. With Warrnambool on the western end and the surf city of Torquay on the east, it meanders for 243km hugging the rugged, dramatic southern coastline of Victoria state, overlooking Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean. Populated with sheer cliffs and dramatic vistas, the drive is not only beautifully scenic, but wholly engaging for the driver (the same, alas, cannot be said for the passengers!).

The drive eastwards leads us along secluded bays, frightful churning seas, pensive inlets and most famously, the impressively beautiful and rugged limestone and sandstone formations that characterize this drive: the Bay of Islands, Loch Ard Gorge, the Grotto, London Bridge, and the Twelve Apostles. Certain sections of the road also bring us through woodland regions through Great Otway National Park, which includes some of the last surviving temperate rainforests in the south of Australia and home to some of the world's tallest flowering trees.

Bay of Islands I

Bay of Islands II

The Grotto

Mist creeps over Loch Ard Gorge

Roosting birds on a stick

Southern Dreaming

Sunset at the Twelve Apostles