New Year road trip day 3: Mallacoota

On the third day of our road trip we had a quick look around Lakes Entrance before setting off for Mallacoota at the pointy end of Victoria.

 A yacht just after entering the eponymous entrance

 Synchronised preening near the North Arm Bridge

Nigel No Neck tries to act natural

Our first stop was Marlo, a small coastal town where the Snowy River flows into the Tasman Sea. We saw seals! There were a few people fishing from the jetty and the local seals obviously knew they could expect some fishy tidbits to be thrown their way.  There were two of them and they were very playful. Only one got a fish while we were there because the fisherman only caught one. 

 The mouth of the Snowy River

The man with a baby for a head

We continued along the coast, stopping at Cape Conran and Cowrie Bay. We took a short walk along a trail through banksia scrub to the rocky beach. 

 Old banskia, new banksia

 Slabs of rock with sharp vertical corrugations

 Smooth blue-grey rocks as big as cantaloupes

Beach art (not of our making)

I picked up some small smooth stones from the beach - there's something very pleasing about holding a smooth stone in the palm of your hand - and we hit the highway again, where rolling hills and farmland had given way to native forest on either side. Next up was Cann River for lunch.

 Charming little church in Cann River

We attempted a walk beside the river after lunch, but unlike most signposted walks, the narrow trail was just a narrow path of flattened grass through the bush. We're all for getting off the beaten track, but not if there's a strong risk of a surprise encounter with a snake (especially as we had bare skin at snake height). It was hot and super humid anyway, so I didn't mind getting back into the air conditioned car. 

While zipping along the highway again we spotted a turn off for Genoa Point in the Croajingolong National Park and hung a rightie onto the gravel road.  Like a lot of places we visited on this trip, this was a spontaneous side-trip. I did do some research before we left, which is where I read about Agnes Falls at Toora, but other stuff we saw signposted along the way and decided to visit on the spur of the moment. We also stopped off at information centres to investigate local walks and attractions. Planning ahead is good, but I think the essence of a road trip is to make it up as you go along.

Anyway, this gravel road was rough, rutted and winding and consequently it felt very long. We finally got to the car park for the walk to Genoa Point to find that it would take a few hours to get to the peak and back, which was more time than we wanted to invest in it. 

So it was back onto the rough gravel road again. We did see a goanna, so it was a worthwhile tangent. 

Tree hugger. It was about a metre long

Ready for his close up

We arrived in Mallacoota around 5 o'clock and booked a motel room. Apart from our first night in Foster, we didn't book any of our accommodation in advance. I think a lot of people must have gone back to work on 5 January so we didn't struggle to find a place to stay anywhere. 

We put our bathers on and headed for the beach - First Bastion Point for a view of Gabo Island. This is the island I mentioned previously that is often mentioned on the ABC weather report (which is because it's a shipping reference). In the end we didn't visit it, but we did see it and its pink granite lighthouse in the distance. 

 Teeny weeny lighthouse at far right 

Closer (hazy) view

It doesn't look it from a distance, but the Gabo Island lighthouse is the second-tallest lighthouse in Australia. 

A beautifully refreshing sea breeze was blowing as we walked along the beach to where the sea and the lake system meet, so we didn't end up going for a swim. I did get my feet wet though and picked up some shells. 

There was an information board at a deck overlooking the beach with information on local flora and fauna, including the Gloomy Octopus. The Gloomy Octopus!!! I thought this was hilarious. How do they know it's not a happy octopus? Can you pick it? 

Yeah, I know, it's hard enough to see the thing, 

let alone determine its emotional state

Then we headed to Betka Beach, on the recommendation of our motel caretaker. During a stroll along the beach I found this blue creature. 

At first I thought it was dead, but as my poking finger got closer to it, it started to wave that tentacle around. Consequently I kept my finger to myself. I guessed it was a blue bottle jellyfish, which I knew to be a nasty customer. When I got home I  googled it and discovered a blue bottle is the same thing as a man o' war jellyfish (which isn't actually a jellyfish). Definitely a nasty customer - its stings are extremely painful and, in rare cases of allergic reaction, can cause deadly side effects. They can still sting for hours or days after death so if you see one on the beach that looks dead, no poking! 

Betka Beach also had a lot of rugged rocks, this time with beautiful ochre seams running through them. We were there during the golden hour, which made them even more attractive. 

Looks like the beach artist was here too

Another local 

Betka Beach - mouth of Betka River in the foreground

From Betka Beach we set out on a coastal walk, much of which took us through tunnels of ti tree that were otherwise deserted and quiet. It was a little spooky. 

 

Dinner-plate-sized spider webs, 

for added spookiness

By now it was dinner time so we headed back into town and ate in the motel restaurant (more scotch fillet and chips for me). Luke had a swim in the motel pool, but I was too tired. Another early night ensued. 

Day 11: Octoportraits

Luke bought me this little octopus finger puppet at a fair on the

 Isle of Wight during our recent holiday. He isn't always sad. 

 Drunk octopus

Startled octopus

Garden, wonderful words, too magnificent

Sunset over Bridge Road, Richmond last Friday 

I've been slack again. I have been keeping a mental list of stuff to blog, but if I leave it any longer to write them down I'll forget them completely. 

Luke and I have a herb garden! We've been buying a lot of fresh herbs lately, but not always using them all before they're past their best (which doesn't take long). So we bought some pots and seedlings and made a wee garden on the fire escape outside our kitchen. There's basil, sage, coriander, mint and some baby lettuce. Some pesky creature has had a snack on the mint leaves, but apart from that, they're doing OK. (We did only plant them on Sunday, so that's not saying much.)

Pudibund. That's a word! It means bashful or modest. I learned this from the Inky Fool (the author, you might recall, of The Etymologicon).

Another wordy bit of glee - the Japanese term mono no aware. It refers to an awareness of the transience of things and wistfulness at their passing. Its literal translation is "the pathos of things" but, as aware is similar to our "ah" or "oh", it's also translated as the "ahh-ness of things". I'm not sure why, but I like this. Maybe because it's one of those foreign terms  that doesn't really have an English equivalent. 

I've been getting a few spam comments on my blogs lately and today's was amusing. Apparently I am "just too magnificent". Sorry. I'll try less hard from now on. 

The other day, I saw Mr and Mrs Plover standing right at the river's edge when a flock of seagulls flew in to land in the same area. One flew so close that Mr/Mrs Plover had to duck! 

Check out these amazing and disturbingly life-like octopus cakes.

Handsome wunderpus and demented charm

The octopus book I'm reading continues to fascinate me. Did you know there is an octopus called the wunderpus photogenicus? There is. Really. I'm not making this up. Obviously somebody - a science person - did make it up, and clearly nobody pooh-poohed the suggestion. Which is awesome.  Apparently it is considered a rather handsome octopus. You can judge for yourself here.  

There are also numerous other flamboyantly named cephalopods - indeed, there is a creature called the flamboyant cuttlefish - but I'm not going to regale you in this post because I want to go and soak in the bath soon. 

I bought another book today - The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, Philosophy, and Literature of Pedestrianism by Geoff Nicholson. I'm a big fan of perambulation, but what sold the book to me was this sentence from the back cover:

Mr Nicholson relates his story with such brio and demented charm - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Demented charm! Geoff Nicholson has written many books, including Flesh Guitar and Footsucker, which both seem to suggested he is a little demented. 

Run, run, run, Ollie the Octopus and the monkeh

I ran most of the way around the Botanic Gardens after I got home from work. That was after a brisk walk home, which took about 35 minutes and left me feeling quite weary, especially after my hard workout at the gym last night. I decided I'd compromise and just walk around The Tan tonight, maybe jog a little if I could. And then I jogged more than half way in a little under 30 mins. Not a remarkable time by any means, but I'm happy with it. Running on a treadmill is one thing; running on the ground where you have to propel yourself is another, harder, thing. I was surprised and pleased that it wasn't as hard as I  expected. I won't be surprised, however, when I wake up tomorrow unable to walk.  

Just as I got home from my run, the Graveyard Train song Run Billy Run came on my iPod. It goes, "Run, run...Billy keep on running". More lyrical coincidence...

I forgot to show you my octopus! I bought him at the toy shop in Maldon. I have named him Ollie, because I like alliteration. He's keeping my (as yet unread) octopus book company. 

While I'm in show and tell mode, here's the 'monkeh' from the PG Tips TV ad I mentioned a few months ago. 

The reindeer on his jumper looks non-plussed. I guess you would if someone sewed a row of stitching across your face. 

I also forgot to mention I bought two books at a new bookshop at Melbourne Central that was having a buy-one-get-one-half-price sale. I bought Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, which I haven't actually read, and also Cheryl Strayed's best-selling account of her 1,100 mile trek along the west coast of America after the death of her mother. Cheryl, as you might recall from one of my recent posts, is the advice columnist known for The Rumpus, where she goes by the name of Sugar. 

That's my holiday reading sorted then. I still haven't finished The Horologicon. I'm getting close to the end, but I've been too tired to read before bed lately.  

Now I'm off to have a soak in an epsom-salts-infused bath in the hope of alleviating some post-run soreness. 

NaBloPoMo: day one

Welcome to my first NaBloPoMo post! I have lots of stuff to write about, admittedly much of it  saved up from the past couple of days, but I don't think that's cheating.

Yesterday was our Bill Bryson/Black Keys double-header. I had a very busy day at work, so was happy to leave the office behind for the stately surrounds of the Melbourne Town Hall, the venue for Bill Bryson's 16th Kenneth Myer Lecture.

In his lecture, An Even Shorter History of Nearly Everything, Bill shared with the large audience six astounding facts about the universe and humankind. My memory is bad (it's the brain trouble*) and I didn't want to miss anything by taking notes, so I can't tell you precisely what the six facts were...but in a nutshell, Bill's point was that the universe is infinite and amazing, our planet is pretty awesome and the fact that we exist as a species and as individuals is miraculous. Our brains, which are far more remarkable than the sum of their unremarkable parts (water, fat and proteins) are also miraculous, though not always reliable (more brain trouble).

I occasionally think about why we are here - Why are there people? - but not in great depth. It's just too big and abstract for my brain to comprehend. (But then I still marvel at the fax machine...)  Bill spoke about these big, abstract concepts in lay terms, with his trademark gentle humour and wonderment. When you really think about this stuff, it's mindblowing. I just kept thinking, "Wow. Yeah, that is pretty astounding." 

I've never seen Bill Bryson speak before.  He was exactly as I would have expected - gracious, self-deprecating, engaging and amusing. I find it quite inspiring that at the age of 60 he still retains such a sense of wonder about the world universe. Not that 60 is old, of course, but it is well beyond the age at which many people lose that sense of wonder. I hope that when I'm 60 - when I'm 80 - I can still contemplate the world around me - the big stuff and the small stuff - and think, "Wow. That's pretty astounding."

* Yes, quite amusing, given the lecture was presented by the Florey Institute of Neurosciences and Mental Health, a bunch of boffins trying to understand and cure brain troubles. It is one of the world's leading brain research bodies, in fact. 

For anyone who is interested, the Florey Institute will be producing a podcast of Bill's lecture.  I'll be keeping an eye (and ear) out for it, so will alert you when it's available. 

I should also commend the Florey Institute for its civic-mindedness in giving Melburnians the pleasure of listening to Bill Bryson speak for free. I suppose spreading the wonder about science and raising the organisation's profile in the community is in its own interests, but still. They could have charged a small fee, but chose not to.  

***

We had a quick bite to eat in the city before walking to the Sidney Myer Music Bowl for The Black Keys concert. We arrived about an hour before the show started, and sat on the grass near the top of the hill to wait. I really like going to the Bowl. Sitting out in the open air with the city lights for a backdrop is a nice change from the usual sweaty music venues we go to.

As with Jack White, I felt overwhelmed for a moment the band came on. Oh my God! We're finally here! And they're here - right there in front of us!  They didn't play the song I really wanted to hear (an oldie - Stack Shot Billy), but it was still a great show. Two people with a guitar and drum kit really can make a helluva lot of noise. In fact, the two of them alone were louder than when the rest of their band was onstage with them. 

Their recent hit Lonely Boy, from their latest album, was obviously one of the most popular songs of the night. I like it, but it isn't one of my favourites (I like their old stuff better than their new stuff). I did really enjoy it last night though,, I guess because it was gruntier. That's a pretty ace guitar riff. 

We walked home after the show - even after eight years, I still love that I can just walk home after seeing a show in or near the city.  For most of the time I've been writing this post, I've been able to hear The Black Key playing their second show at the Bowl. The wind is obviously blowing our way.  

***

I got two deliveries at work yesterday. That's the second time in a row that I've had two separate online purchases arrive on the same day. One is a necklace, and the other is a book about octopuses. Have I mentioned my recent octopus obsession? (OK, obsession might be overstating it, but I enjoy alliteration). 

I can't remember what sparked my interest in cephalopods (squid and octopuses), but I recently spent an evening reading about them online - they are such amazing creatures. In the grip of this wonderment, I purchased a book about octopuses. It's called Octopus: The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate. It has a little spiel on the front from Jean-Michel Cousteau. 

The octopus - strange, mysterious, perfectly camouflaged, able to change texture, colour, and shape, bendable, sneaky and intelligent. I heartily recommend this book.

Mysterious! Bendy! Sneaky! How can you not be fascinated by octopuses? ('Octopuses', 'octopi' and 'octopodes' are all acceptable plurals of octopus, but I like 'octopuses' the best and will never tire of saying it. I also enjoy saying 'squid'.)

Anyway, I have a whole post about the marvel of octopuses yet to come. I know you will be on the edge of your seats for that one. Trust me, there is much glee to be had in the octopus's garden.