It's a Dry Heat

Melbourne is regarded (particularly by those in Sydney and Queensland) as one of Australia's most chilly cities. However, summers in Melbourne can be accompanied by rather extreme heat. This past week was a case-in-point, with three consecutive days where temperatures exceeded 43C (109F). The consequences for Melbourne were readily apparent - a rash of heat-related deaths; a complete collapse of the train system; and widespread problems with the electricity grid that were exacerbated by the eruption of a number of bushfires.

Update 2/2/2009: The heatwave has claimed another victim. Melbourne's brand new observation wheel has been shut down indefinitely due to structural failure during the heat wave.

Inauguration Day

The U.S. Presidential Inaugural occurs every four years, but January 20, 2009 was inarguably a bit different then prior events. Fortunately for me, I was once again back in the U.S. in January, which enabled me to sneak in a trip to the nation's capital for Inauguration Day. I flew into DC from Phoenix where I'd attended the annual AMS meeting and landed at Washington National where outdoor temperatures were a chilly 12F (-11C).

Scott and Katie were kind enough to put me up for a few days, and one of the first tasks was to ensure we had sufficient cold-weather gear to survive several hours of exposure on the Mall. A visit to REI provided the first tangible evidence that a large number of people were planning on attending the Inauguration, as REI was packed full of people and hats, gloves, and long-underwear were all in short supply. On Sunday the 18th, we headed down to the mall to check out the Lincoln Memorial Inauguration Concert. However, we arrived a bit late to get into the secure area and thus had to be satisfied with a distant view of a jumbotron from outside the perimeter. The day also revealed that while Metro services might be adequate for getting into DC, the system was totally overwhelmed after events finished, forcing us to walk back across the Potomac into Virginia.

On the big day, we awoke at 5:00am, were out the door at 6:00am and managed to be on the Mall by about 7:30am. This left us with just just four hours to wait in freezing conditions until the beginning of the ceremony. We managed, however, to cope with the cold, and though we were probably a good mile away from the Capitol building we can still claim to be among the 1.5 million who were "there". After the swearing-in, however, we had another adventure trying to escape from DC, ultimately making our way again to the 14th street bridge and using our feet to get back home. We spent the rest of the day resting, getting warm and watching the Inaugural parade on TV.

And to top off the whole trip, I managed to hitch a ride back to Australia aboard one of Qantas' new A380s. Yes - it's a very large plane.

Christmas 2008

Another Christmas, another adventure on the Australian coast. Christmas 2005 was spent in Adelaide. Christmas 2006 was spent in Tasmania. Christmas 2007 was spent in Merimbula. Christmas 2008 represented a return to coastal NSW, with visits to both Mallacoota and Bateman's Bay, followed by a quick over land dash to Canberra.
We headed out from Melbourne to Mallacoota on the 22nd of December, setting up camp in the Foreshore Holiday Park. My memories of Mallacoota revolve around large numbers of mosquitoes and an encounter with the legendary (and quite tasty) jellycake. However, we did manage a couple of treks into Croajingolong National Park, and I managed to narrowly avoid stepping upon a Brown Snake, the species of snake responsible for the most deaths in Australia. I'm beginning to believe that thoughts such as, "hey, I wonder where this path leads. . ." should not be acted upon.

From Mallacoota, the drive to Bateman's Bay was only a couple of hours over familiar ground, although we did stumble upon this grizzly car accident south of Eden. In Bateman's Bay, we camped outside of town (the town being the least attractive aspect of the region) in the community of South Duras at the South Duras Caravan Park. The caravan park was chock full of stereotypical Australian wildlife including kangaroos, possums, and goannas, all of which spent the nighttime hours attempting to steal half of our stuff and shitting on the other half. Nevertheless, South Duras Beach was a lovely playground. We also explored Pebbly Beach in North Duras as well as Mt. Duras (where we got tangled up with a leech or two). We spent one magical evening on Duras Lake, paddling with Bay & Beyond Sea Kayak Tours, and our final night on New Year's Eve was celebrated with a minor feast, but we didn't quite stay awake long enough to ring in the New Year. From Bateman's Bay, we drove inland to Canberra where we spent a couple of days soaking up a little Aussie history, before attending the wedding of Nick and Dominique. We spent a morning in the National Museum of Australia (which I think we agreed had one of the most kick-ass gift shops of any museum we'd ever been in), followed the next day by a visit to Parliament House and the Australian War Memorial. That left us a bit fatigued for the night's wedding festivities at the Canberra Yacht Club, but we managed to rally.