Day 4 - Recreation

Yesterday we had a great day going out East of Melbourne to Marysville and Healesville. Our intrepid Aussie expert, Jared, drove us out of the city traffic and into a country populated by sheep and horses still shaggy with winter and endless vineyards, their closely pruned vines stretching in parallel lines over the hills. We passed so many vineyards, I wondered if they ever ran out of pretentious-sounding surnames to call them by. Climbing further, we encountered gum tree forests carpeted with soft green ferns. Large tree ferns filled the understory like palm trees, their armored, reptillian stems making us feel as if a velociraptor might pop out into the road at any moment. The bark peeled from the gum trees like they were giant brown string cheese sticks.
Further on, we crossed into a different sort of forest. This was the area where in 2009, brush fires had raged through, killing 173 people and destroying whole towns like Marysville. We pulled into Marysville, new houses everywhere, and marveled at how much they had rebuilt in a year. The forests are recovering curiously, the gum trees covered in a furry layer of new growth.
We turned around and hit Healesville, where we stopped at a bakery and had pies, a very traditional Australian treat like a pot pie but with lots of different options for fillings. Good Aussies like Jared squirt tomato sauce (ketchup) on theirs. There were also a large variety of sweets. I picked one at random off the menu- a "beesting." Jared had something called a lambington, which, as he promised, contained no lamb.

After lunch, we headed for the Healesville wildlife sanctuary where we got to meet all the most popular Australian animals: kangaroos, emus, koalas, wombats, platypus, tasmanian devils, snakes, echidna, dingoes, and numerous birds. Among the birds, we were especially privileged to see and hear a lyrebird singing. There are videos and pictures better than mine, so be patient, they will soon be coming to a picasa album near you. In the lyrebird enclosure we met a delightful sanctuary volunteer named Leigh, who also showed us the secret nest of an eastern yellow robin in the bushes.
Running out of time now, Leigh implored us to visit the dingo puppies instead of running off to make it to the footy match. I could have lived there all day, but, alas, Jared's friend Paul was waiting for us. Perhaps we will have time to hit up the zoo later.

The footy match merits a post all to its own, so I won't get into it right now. Suffice to say I stumbled home around midnight, incredibly tired after such a full day!