We left Canberra on Wednesday, after an enjoyable week. The city gets a bad press, and I think a lot of it is justified, but we saw some great stuff there and had a good apartment so we left happy. As a final reminder of just how backward the so-called city is, we caught a train from the only station: a tiny station from which three trains a day go to Sydney (usually) and no more trains go anywhere. At the moment there are only two trains a day. The city's there to impress visiting dignitaries, and what they want with decent public transport?
Whenever Anne tells me we're going to a place with a funny name, I make up a similar sounding funny name which I then proceed to call it. This amuses Anne no end, and she demonstrates her amusement by gritting her teeth and rolling her eyes. Occasionally she says just breaks down in tears. What fun. Anyway, when we decided we were going to stop at Bundanoon for a couple of nights between Canberra and Sydney it didn't take much imagination for me to dub it Brigadoon. I'm so funny.
For those of you who aren't big fans of Scotch Mythology or Gene Kelley musicals, Brigadoon is a legendary Scotch town which only appears for one day every 100 years.
So, imagine our glee when we got off the train after two hours to be greeted by a sign declaring: Bundanoon is Brigadoon. They have a Brigadoon festival there each year! See here for more info!
Ready Brek Glen
After dark on Wednesday evening, Anne and I grabbed our torch and trekked out to Glow Worm Glen. It was a frightening walk through the forests of Moreton National Park, but we were brave. We reached the end of the track and saw the rocks around us alight with glowing glow worms. It was quite a sight, and we were both very impressed.
On the way back we saw two possums, but also some horrid insects on a tree. We thought they were cockroaches. Yuk!
When insects attack!
On Thursday we were up early for a trek through the park. The first part of the walk was the track to Glow Worm Glen. We were glad we didn't walk there in the day first, as if we had we probably wouldn't have gone after dark. Everywhere we looked there were these roach-like things we'd seen the night before. They were hanging from every tree. We soon realised they weren't alive - they were just empty shells. Each of the shells had a hole in its back - something had clearly emerged from said shell. There were lots of small holes in the ground too. These roach-like things had clearly left the ground, climbed the trees, and let loose!
It wasn't long before we discovered what had emerged. These big horrible colurful insects with large wings kept falling on us. I swear they were out to get us! We were walking a thin path through the trees and were a bit frantic. It was like a scene out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
(I'm thankful for my knowledge of films from which I can draw analogies, since it means I don't have to quite so good at, well, you know, describing things in, er, kind of like, er - words. You know?)
On we trekked. A big insect hit my foot and Anne said I screamed like a girl. I was offended, so after that I made sure that I roared like a wookie whenever I was scared. I figured this was much more masculine.
The walk was pretty spectacular. We descended into a deep glen (after being awe-struck by the views over it) and came to a waterfall. After that there was a steep trek up a hill. We rested at the top, exhausted.
As we neared civilisation again we met a man who told us that the big horrid insects were cicadas. We were surprised, as we'd heard of these, but never seen them. Apparently they run on a seven year cycle, so the ones emerging from the ground now were laid there seven years ago. I named this process Cicadian Rhythm (which is very funny and clever, if you know a little bit about body clocks).
Anne is chased (NB: Not Anne is chaste)
A little later, Anne was chased by a cicada. It first flew into her bum. (Sorry - I don't mean literally into her bum. It bumped into her left buttock.) "Run", I screamed helpfully. Run she did.
She couldn't see the evil insect, so I shouted directions. After running 20 meters or so she started to slow don. "Don't stop!", I shouted (laughing), "It's directly behind you!" It soon started flying alongside her, so I told her to cleverly lose it by turning round and coming back to me. She wasn't happy. She got away without serious injury though, so I'd say she should thank me.
All the Aussies we spoke to that night had no problem with cicadas at all, saying their coming means summer will be here soon, and that a cicada won't hurt you. In our defence I'll say that most Aussie wildlife seems to want to hurt us, so we weren't taking chances.
Stephen attacked!
I had a nasty experience that evening. Anne and I were sitting in the hostel lounge by the fire, chatting to a Kiwi woman. I felt something on my shin, and ignored it, assuming it was just an itch. Later, I felt something on my thigh (under my trousers) and realised it was no mere itch. Not wishing to cause a scene I casually rose and went to our room. When I got there I threw off my shoes and ripped off my trousers (stop picturing that, ladies!) I shook my trousers and out of the leg popped a bloody great cockroach! Yuck! After killing it (cruel, but understandable) I danced around in disgust for a while and scratched every part of my leg.
Full circle
Today we caught a train to Sydney. Nice to be back! We'll be here for a fortnight, after which we're flying to New Zealand.
We're staying with Andrew and Shae for a few days first. Readers will remember that we stayed with them when we first arrived here in February. It's like coming home (except they've moved flat since then).