Reef, Rock and Harbour tour, 2006

Back in Melbourne now...

To fill you in: after Uluru we went north to Tennant Creek, and then east to tropical Townsville in Queensland on the coast. (Yes, it is really called Townsville.) There we went scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, which was amazing and stingrayless. Germaine Greer had an unpopular take on Steve, stating that "the animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin," for all his manhandling and grappling of animals. (Maybe she would have sung a different tune if Steve hadn't called John Howard "the greatest leader Australia has ever had and the greatest leader in the world"?) Anyway, Steve's definitely been the talk of the country for the last while, whatever you may think of him... After Townsville it was down to Brisbane for a night, where there were many extremely drunk people. From there on to Sydney in New South Wales, with its famous Harbour and opera house. Down through Canberra and the ACT, where we checked out the wonderful National Gallery and got lost for a few hours driving around the circular streets. And finally back to Melbourne where we went to an Australian rules football game at the MCG! The footy was cool - it's played on an oval field, the action is almost never stopped except between quarters, and there's lots of hits to get the blood pumping. (As a kid I remember in soccer sometimes someone would pick up the ball and yell "Ozzie Rules!" and go tackling through everyone. Heh...) All in all a great trip, if a bit rushed - we saw every state and territory except Western Australia and Tasmania in a period of just a couple of weeks! I'm off now to the museum before it closes... I'll be flying back home tomorrow!

Bye!