On my third full day in Perth, I took a second full day tour. It stopped for a bit at Caversham Wildlife Park, so I have some photos of me feeding and petting a kangaroo, cradling a coarse-haired wombat in my lap, and petting a sleepy koala. Then it was a lot of driving, a lunch in Cervantes, and a lot more driving, until we came to Nambung National Park, home of the Pinnacles. It was hot there and bright,…
Ah, Albany. This is on the south coast of Western Australia, further east of the Valley of the Giants. It’s gorgeous there, with deep blue skies and white sand beaches. It’s cool and breezy, the winds blowing the clouds across the sky so quickly it’s like you’re sitting in H.G. Wells’ time machine as it moves toward the future. In this particular part of Albany, we visited the Gap and the Natural Bridge, and the tour guide told us that…
I took the above photo in the Valley of the Giants, sometime in the first half of the first tour my godmother and I took on my second full day in Australia. The Valley of the Giants is located around Walpole, south of Perth, close to the southern coast of Australia. It’s a forest of giant tingle trees, which are hardy and shallow-rooted. There are two parts of the park we visited—the Tree Top Walk and the Ancient Empire. The…
I clicked my heels three times on the 12th of March, just half an hour after noon at a major city in Australia, and about 13 or 14 hours later I arrived back in California, on the 12th of March at 7:00 in the morning, over five hours before I left. Dorothy never had it so bad; I’m still recovering from the jet lag, and I can’t imagine what Jean-Claude Van Damme had to endure every time he time travelled….
I’m leaving the country tomorrow. Not that I’ve committed a crime and am on the lam or anything. It’s just that I’m going to Australia to visit my godmother. I’ve told only a few people so far because the trip has been in the works off and on since November, and I’m the sort of person who won’t hope or look forward to anything because I’m so afraid of disappointment. But I’m going, and there’s no turning back. I’ll be…