October's little adventures

Friends,

It's been a few weeks since I left you in South Australia's National Parks and this blog entry will be shorter than what you're used to. I'm sure many of you are saying THANK GOD!

In the last few weeks the Melbourne Rainbow Band had a major performance at Gasworks Theatre "OTHAFA" (Over The Hills And Far Away) The fairy tale land where the king is gay and his apricot poodle, Tofu, helps him along his journey to come to terms with his sexuality. It was hilarious, let me tell you. I don't have any pictures personally. I was busy playing my parts, but I know there are some on the band's facebook page so look them up and become a fan if you want to know more.

On another weekend, a friend, Iral (i-RAL) and I took a one night camping trip in Tommy the Tank to The Lakes National Park in Victoria. It's a small park nestled between Lake Victoria and the ocean, about 3.5 hours drive east of Melbourne, near the town of Lakes Entrance. Yes that is the name of a town here and it's where the ocean and fresh water lakes meet. Simple, accurate and to the point like a lot of things in Australia. Once we found our camping spot for the night we had some lunch and then did a little exploring of the park. We went to the main viewing area of the lakes and as you can see from the picture its got a funny name.

We spent the evening by the campfire with the only other people in the campground, a nice french couple. This was the first camping trip I've taken where there hasn't been a full moon. In fact, there was no moon at all. We laid on one of the picnic tables for a while staring at the milky way and more stars than I've seen in many years.

The next morning I cooked breakfast. The usual scrambled bacon, eggs, veggies and cheese concoction before packing up everything.

As we heading back down the peninsula we had to make stop at the ocean beach. Detouring down every road I could find that would let me do a little 4x4 and trying to find some drivable access to the beach. Finally settling on walking down there instead. It was a GREAT day and we explored the dunes and rocky out cropping of Ninety Mile beach. Finding a blue shelled crab to antagonize for a little while. Then enjoyed the sounds and sights of the Bass Straight.

Once back to the car we took the 160 km (100m) drive around to Lakes Entrance to capture this photo. We enjoyed a greasy lunch of some fresh fish and chips before the long ride back to town.

I did a Skype call with some friends in Portland Friday night (their time) It was great to see Ed, Corina, Roger, Kevin, Ken and Keith. I also did a short one with my mother this morning since she's gotten a new computer. Skype is a FREE service with video call between computers. All you need is a webcam and a good internet connection. If you're interested in looking me up down laod the program and my log in is "bkharris68". It's the way of the future and so very "Jetsons". I'd love to keep in touch with more of you this way.

This coming weekend, Halloween, Iral and I are going to Auckland and Rotorua (on the volcanic plain) New Zealand for 4 days. It's Melbourne Cup weekend, the horse race that stops a country. I'm not sure if it's a national holiday or just a state one. But I don't really care since I get Monday and Tuesday off work to do some more exploring! Be on the look out next week for a blog entry of that trip to Australia's 8th state.

Happy birthday's go out to a Laurie Wrobleski and Kevin VC (didn't want to spell it wrong) who both have birthday's on the 29th. My nephew, Matt ,my mother and several other friends have birthday's in November so just in case I'll say Happy birthday now. Of course well wishes to anyone else that may have slipped my mind at the moment.

I hope everyone has a HAPPY HALLOWEEN and that you're enjoying the fall. Summer is in full swing down under so come visit!