Stargazing, a Giant Koala and gold!

No books or movies consumed this week as I followed my cousin out of town on one of her locoms. It’s a term I hadn’t heard of in the States, but it’s essentially being a sub for a doctor. They’re often out of town since there’s a lot of country out here and it may be hard to get a consistent medical support out in the smaller towns.

It was nice to see how life is life in the smaller towns all across Australia. We went to Horsham, which is still in the state, around 3.5 hrs away by car. I stayed home with J and helped take care of the two little kids and we explored the area.

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The Grampians National Park was in the region so we got to check it out too. The weather was a bit rainy so instead of anything as glorious as the visitor pamphlet…it was more foggy trees. Hopefully I can come back and camp when it’s not too wet out. The terrain reminded me a bit of parts of Hawaii too. It’s supposed to be quite good for rock climbing too.

So sure, we didn’t get to see much of the national park, but I got to see my first Big Thing! Evidently there are a ton of these items across Australia (people set their road trips around them!) and this is my first. It was near where we were staying so we stopped at the Giant Koala. Learned he was christened the name Sam, after a famous koala that passed away during the 2009 Black Saturday wildfires.

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I got to spent a lot of quality time with Annie & J and the kids. It was a big week! Joey figured out how to turn over all on his own! He still hates it when he’s on his tummy but he sometimes can turn himself back over. Ha. He’s getting there.

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I’ve achieved hug status with Tilly, so that’s major too. 🙂 We made cookies together and explored town when it wasn’t raining. She got very close to a group of wild kangaroos! Learned that the collective noun for kangaroos is a mob (derived from Aborigines). I even saw some kangaroos on the side of the road boxing! (Happened way too fast to take a picture.) Saw a wild emu too. It’s awesome seeing all the wildlife out and about.

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One of the best things that I’ve always liked about smaller towns is the lack of light pollution, so I was able to see the Milky Way on the clear nights! Jen told me about a star cloud that’s only visable from the Southern Hemisphere, so I went hunting for that too. I saw it! Pictures are impossible with just my phone, but that didn’t stop me from trying. You can actually see little white stars (I’ve circled Alpha Centuri and the Southern Cross). I use a fun Sky Guide app that helps me identify what I’m looking at. It helps so much with the constellations and gives their backstories too.

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On the way back, my Aunt & Uncle joined in and we explored Ballarat together. It’s the Gold Rush capital of Victoria and we went to Sovereign Hill. It’s an awesome open-air museum depicting the town back in the beginning of the gold rush in the 1850s. It’s filled with costumed actors that you can interact with and learn information about the time.

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Loved the details and it was neat to see the shops and all their period-specific state. I really enjoyed learning to write with a quill and ink pot in the school house.

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There’s a Gold Museum too, which had recreations of some of the HUGE nuggets that were discovered there. This one, Welcome Stranger, was only found 2.5 cm under the ground!

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The presence of gold brought many immigrants seeking fortune. The Chinese referred to Victoria as “New Gold Mountain”.

It was really nice to get out of town and learn some about Australia’s history and when the Chinese came over. What a smooth transition as next post will be on my Hong Kong trip!