Australian Wildlife

Well that was my holidays, they went quickly. Back to Uni tomorrow, just as the weather's starting to get nice  again. I sat on the grass in the sun today reading from my laptop (I started reading through the Harry Potter books a few days ago, I've got to the fourth so far), and was quite comfortable, I think the rainy season might be... well I don't want to jinx it, but it was nice today.

I haven't really done much over the holidays, I know I had the chances, but I was just so relieved to have some free time I may have accidentally spent a week playing Oblivion (which looks oh so shiny on my new laptop). In an effort to make the most of my last free day (not counting the weekend), I spent Friday visiting the 'Cleland Wildlife Park' just outside Adelaide. Having by this point spent about $160 on my bike (what with the service, crash-helmet, bike lock, etc.) I avoided the bus and took one of the cycle tracks out to the park.

What I didn't know when I set out was that the park is up in the mountains (2385 feet up, to be exact), and on only my second bike ride in over half a year I'd set out on a two and a half hour uphill winding struggle. It's a dedicated bike path, the crafers bikeway, initially running along beside the M1, but to make sure all the inclines are vaguely manageable it diverges from the motorway and takes the scenic route around some totally different hills, while the motorway presumably goes through an uphill tunnel or something. I can't say I enjoyed the scenery, being as I was: puffing and panting on the lowest gear, repeating "gonna pet a Koala, gonna pet a Koala" to myself like some kind of mantra. I'm proud that I never got off and walked, though if I had I would probably have been freezing (I could see my breath in the air), the constant exercise let me make the whole journey in a t-shirt.

The park was great, I got a few pictures, though my camera started complaining of low battery just after arriving (typical) so I had to pace myself. The first creatures I came across turned out to be my favorite, Potoroos. Potoroos look a bit like fat gerbils the size of rabbits, with big three toed back feet and small front paws. They were EVERYWHERE around the camp, extremely cute and very tame, I was standing in front of the park map deciding where to go when I suddenly noticed about 6 of them dancing and playing around my legs, I'm surprised they don't get trodden on. There were supposed to be Bandicoots and Bettongs which are similar sorts of creatures, but I didn't see any, and was quite happy with my army of Potoroos.

There were Kangaroos and Wallabies of course, I got some photos of Joeys poking their heads out, and some silly ones with me in the foreground grinning inanely (all will go on Picasa tomorrow). There were three separate aviaries: swampland, forest and Mallee, with flocks of budgies and tiny tiny birds (smaller than golf balls even when puffed up) and rare parrot varieties. The Emus were elusive, the Dingoes were playful, the Wombats were hungry and the Tasmanian Devils were quite energetic.

It was very cold in the park, I had to stop at one point and go get a cup of tea to warm me up, winter is supposed to be a better time to see the animals, because they're more active in trying to stay warm. The Koalas proved to be the exception to this rule. The park has special 'Koala close-ups" sessions where you can pet a Koala, so I queued up in the petting line, Potoroos still playing around my feet, I was quite excited (though not enough to pay $30 to hold one, that's just ridiculous, it's more than double the entrance fee). Anticlimactically, the Koala I got to pet had fallen asleep with it's eyes open, staring into the middle distance, looking a bit glaekit. The handler was gently trying to get some Eucalyptus into it's mouth to make it more photogenic, but it was like trying to feed a stuffed toy, so I got a slightly less enthusiastic photo with the comatose Koala and then went to play with the Potoroos some more.

The journey home was unbelievable. It was almost as much fun as playing with the animals. I had known it would be downhill all the way, but what I hadn't noticed was how shallow the slope was, the force of gravity balanced with wind resistance to keep me at a comfortable speed, and with the gyro effect keeping my front handlebars stable I was able to sit up and really enjoy myself the whole way down. Even the downhills I remembered from the journey up turned out to be merely flat bits (they had just seemed like downhills compared to the steep sections) which I zoomed through. I spent a lot of time gesticulating wildly, trying to keep warm as I wasn't exerting myself at all, grinning at cyclists going the other way, dancing (as much as one can on a bike) and pretending to play an invisible piano for the amusement of passing motorists. I was home in half an hour.

That trip on Friday managed to make up for most of the time wasted on computer games, though I still regret not playing my violin and keyboard more, and I'm still to design my website (which will be at www.philiptopping.com). I did actually get a lot of cooking done, most notably I made my own pasta, despite problems with consistency (having to weigh everything by creating a counterbalance of two cups on a wooden board on a rolling pin, and using exact measurement packaging like unopened blocks of cheese as weights, tends to give rather inaccurate results). The pasta turned out alright in the end, in fact fresh homemade tagliatelle with fresh homemade pesto was the type of meal you just can't eat without noticing how good it is.

As for finding alternative accommodation, it turns out I was looking in the wrong places, and should have been using gumtree. I avoided gumtree after trying to use the site to find a job in the UK, and getting only scam/spammers, but that seems to be confined to the job offers on the site. I shall continue to look, now in the right place, though I guess most people will have already found a place for the coming semester. Meantime, I can afford to stay where I am for now, as the rent will stay lower as long as I have to share a room.