Marvelous Melbourne

May 26th, Monday.
In Marvelous Melbourne, at least, that's what everyone here calls it. The city is massive, and all of the surrounding suburbs fan out from the center over an incredibly large area. I said early on that Brisbane was a big city, but not overwhelming....Melbourne is a huge city and it is overwhelming. I think we've got a good grasp on things now.

Mel is really the opposite of Adelaide, not least of the differences being the privatized public transportation system here. We had to be shuttled from the airport (Brisbane and Sydney have trains running, and Adelaide had buses) and it was pricey, but at least we were dropped right at the hotel and they'll pick us back up when we leave. When we arrived yesterday afternoon the sky was cloudy and threatened rain (it ended up only drizzling a bit) so the driver joking welcomed us to "sunny Melbourne." Then he added, "but it's alright we need the rain." I asked if the whole country was in a drought then (they are, for eleven years now) and he replied, "not really, its patchy. Victoria's a bit dry, but we've had a spot of rain these past weeks."

Today we booked an afternoon tour out to the Dandenong ranges, which are low mountains covered in primeval rainforest. We were taken up in a tour bus with a fantastic guide named Phil (Dr. Phil as he introduced himself assuring that we would learn plenty of useless information -- a promise he kept). Phil drove us first around the city to get an idea of where everything is, then we head out for the "Dandies."

The rain forest was spectacular, with giant "mountain ashes" (really just another variety of eucalpyt) that tower over massive ferns and mossy undergrowth. The whole place looks like dinosaurs should be roaming about. We stopped for tea at a little park in the forest where we socialized with flocks of cockatoos (about three different varietys) and other small parrots that were quite tame and would eat out of your hand. One arrogant cockatoo landed on my shoulder and stole my lamington (or jamington, since it had jam in it) straight out of my hand. Chris and I wandered into the forest and caught sight of a kookaburra, and snapped a few photos before getting back on the bus.

We then drove up the mountain to the summit of Mt. Dandenong were we de-bused to look out over the whole Yarra river valley with Melbourne shrouded in mist in the distance. The whole time we were treated to Phil's great sense of humor, himself being a Pommie (English) and having lived in Vancouver for a spell. He told us he fell in love with a Melbourne girl and had been there since they married the year before.

Anyway, time to go eat. I'll add some more stuff tomorrow morning...maybe.