I didn’t know that this is the smoke of the burning Grampians
In the last two days I went to visit Charlie’s family. As soon as the train left Melbourne, we entered the edges of Nowhere. City ended and then there was just more and more space. An occasional farm, slightly hilly landscape, some trees (and Australian trees are quite different from the European ones – they only have leaves on the very tips of the highest branches and nothing more, they feel like they had no volume, they are see-through trees). After a while we entered the side of Nowhere – no more hills, trees got more sparse, and all there is is a sea of sun-scorched yellow grass with some variations whenever a farm appears on the horizon. After I changed for the bus in Bendigo, an old gold mining site, it was already the very middle of Nowhere. Complete flatland, hardly any vegetation, and in two and a half hours drive we passed literally 3 villages. If I ever get tired of humans and will want to live in a place where don’t have to see anyone for months, I’m going to move here.
More flatland
Road takes forever…
Incidentally, remember how I said everything here is more expensive than in the UK? Well, a train/bus ticket for a nearly 5 hour long journey was 40$. So about three times cheaper than in Britain. British rail companies, eat dirt and die slowly and in pain from chlamydia. Also, in Australia there is none of this nonsensical spending time hunting a bargain and booking two months in advance – just get your ticket on the station for a fixed price and that’s that. You know, the reasonable way.
Charlie and Rosie at the Farley’s house
Anyway, Nyah is a small farmers village with some vineyards, some other growing stuff and a whole lot of nothing. People in here are very different to those I saw in Melbourne, and I now also think that re-enacting Priscilla would not be the best idea. Charlie showed me all the interesting places, which included her old houses, the site of her primary school (removed now, because it was to tiny), the girl scout headquarters, the forest, the rice plantation memorial and the river. I said I understand why she moved out – the place is beautiful, but damn I’d die of boredom if I lived here! Still, it’s wonderfully pastoral and visiting for a couple days is really nice.
After a family dinner (I now met the full Farley bunch) we went to look at the stars and wow are they awesome here. Bright and different, and more milky. And then something wonderful happened, something quite priceless in the light of three last few nights – I slept like a baby until 11am! Finally!
Welcome to the paddlesteamer
And today I had a more proper tour: Charlie’s mum took us to Swan Hill, the local metropoly. We checked out the local museum-reconstruction of a settlement times village and went on a boat trip down the river. There were some fantastic views and just traveling on an old paddle boat was great. Made me want to go for holiday to the Amazon and sail down the river reading a library of books on the way.
Not easy to take a picture of a kangaroo in the wild from a car…
And in the evening – kangaroos!!! First Charlie’s dad took us to a nearby golf course and I saw a few running about. They wouldn’t let us get too close, though, and since it was getting dark I only managed to get some rather vague pictures of them. Then we saw a rather beautiful sunset, after which we came back to encounter more kangaroos – on a plate. Kangaroo stakes are really good, very delicate and juicy, and kangaroo sausages are good too.
Sunset
Sunrise
Finally, I managed to upload a few pictures today and add them to appropriate posts – check them out!
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