Our social calendar has been fairly busy this past week. With our time winding down, we are trying to get a last visit in with the many friends we have made. Thursday night Tony, Netti and Jack were over for supper and a visit. Friday night found us having an impromptu combined effort meal with Roz, Daryl, and the kids, followed by a game of hearts, which I am happy to report that Sean did not win. Then on Saturday we headed over to Frank and Sylvia’s for a lovely meal and more games. We played Carcassone with the extension pack – princesses and dragons. It added a whole new dimension to the game but I was able to hold off Sean and beat him by one point. All I can say is thank goodness for farmers and the little fairy! ;-) Frank and Sylvia also introduced us to another game – Blokus. It proved to be another fun game. For those that know me, know that I take my gaming seriously. Once we were there and into the games, I completely forgot about the camera. We have two more game dates before we leave so with any luck I will get a picture or two. Next go around I’ll need to be a little more diligent and get more pictures of our social get-togethers/outings.
Sunday morning was a bit later start than we planned since we were up late playing games at Frank and Sylvia’s. But we managed to get everything packed and were out of here by 9:30 am and headed to Wilsons Promontory National Park. Stopped in Ararat for a coffee and milkshakes and a kind person pointed out that our rear tire was flat. Limped over to a nearby service station and filled the tire with air and asked about a tyre repair shop. Good luck finding one on a Sunday was the reply. Great, now what? We drove around to the three places in Ararat just to confirm that they were indeed not open on Sundays. Tyre did not appear to be losing air so we checked to see if we had a spare, yep, and decided to head on to Balarat to see if we could find something there. Surely to goodness the second largest city in Victoria would have a tyre shop open on a Sunday. Nope! Grabbed a bit to eat, checked and filled the tire again and since it only lost a couple pounds, we headed to Melbourne. We never did find a shop open so we ended up going to The Prom with the trye as is. Turned out to be not much of an issue. We filled with air again before leaving Wednesday morning and made it back to Balarat where we got it fixed.
On Sunday night we pulled into the Prom around 7:30 and Brianna met us to show us to the hut she had us set up in for the night.
We woke up and strolled down to the beach before heading up for the meeting. All six of the Canadian exchangees were there and several of the Australians who had been over to Canada. After sorting out the agenda and going through introductions, Aiden and I headed off for a morning at the beach. We hung out for a bit with the family of one of the Australian exchangees. It was a little cool and we got caught in a couple of rain showers. but we’re tough, we’re Canadian after all. Sean spent the
day learning about park management issues in Wilson’s Prom, knowledge sharing, succession planning and discussion about what worked well with the exchange and what needs more work. Everyone met up at the one and only café in Tidal River for lunch.
Aiden and my afternoon was spent settling into our new digs. After work Art arranged for a trip up Mt Oberon, which overlooks Tidal River and much of the park. Unfortunately Aiden had fallen into a much-needed sleep so I sent Sean up to get pictures. Later that evening some of the staff at the Prom and the other exchanges got together for a BBQ meal and some social time to network, catch up and shoot a little pool. It was a very productive day.
The next morning, exchangee partners who were there were invited to share their ideas about the exchange and what worked and what needs improvement. Then the rest of the morning was spent sorting out next steps and how to improve the program. Art had also arranged for a boat trip later that morning as the boat had been launched to sample a dolphin that had washed up along the coast. A few lucky people including Sean got to go and do a tour down some of the outer islands in the Glennie group, Cleft (Skull) Island and a tour around the seal colonies on Kanowna Island before heading back up along the coast. It was an amazing, once in a lifetime type of experience watching albatross, penguins and seals in a feeding frenzy on some type of school of fish, exploring a sea cave, watching a sea eagle and seeing the thousands of Australian and New Zealand fur seals on the rocks and cliffs around the colony. While Sean was off in the boat, Aiden and I walked the Loo-Errn track. It reminded me of Omnik marsh with its boardwalk winding it’s way around Tidal River. It lead us down to the beach where we spent a good three hours playing in the sand and picking up little jellyfish. Aiden was afraid of getting stung by the jellyfish so did not go into the water but he had no fear of picking them up. Go figure?
Later in the day we did a bit more exploring around the Prom as a family with a bit of geocaching, had some supper and crashed fairly early. We saw our first wild Wombat – never realized just how cute they are. Next morning we were up and on our way fairly early and with a few caching stops and the tyre repair, we made our way back to the Grampians in relatively short order. There are certainly some stunningly beautiful places in Australia and working as a ranger (or being married to one) is a sure way to see them.
It was good to arrive home and catch up with family and friends. As you can see from the last picture that we are definitely back in the north. This picture was taken April 29th and the ice on Clear Lake is still very solid. But within a week or so it has melted - a sure sign of spring. 
With our first six months nearly behind us we figured that we would have one last outing before we left this beautiful place. We had been up to Hollow Mountain near the beginning of this grand adventure but only had a small taste of it. We knew it was an area that we would have to return to. Today seemed like a good day to go exploring.
