Melbourne is such a lovely city, we shall miss it.  The summer is glorious, not usually too hot, and much more conducive to exercise than the tropical north.  There’s loads of cultural events going on in the parks, this morning we cycled down to the Botanical Gardens (“the Tan”), ran round it (a must-do) with the strains of Bizet wafting over us from the concert bowl, then cycled home along the Yarra River, stopping off for a coffee on Jen and Ben’s shopping street.  We’ll have a swim at the outdoor pool round the corner later.  Wednesdays don’t get much better than that.

 

Yesterday I did another of the Melbourne museums, my friend from last week told me she was working there on a Tuesday and that she would show me round.  I turned up and she wasn’t there, nobody had heard of her.  Maybe I got the name, or the time wrong?  Not to worry, I spoke to some more very interesting people, an indigenous guy (Paul) and a European lady (Jill) who chatted to me for about an hour.  They started by saying that nobody really understands what the aboriginal people want, but there are many initiatives to try and find out.  Their feeling was that the indigenous people we’ve come across in the north have a harder time than those living in NSW and Victoria because of racial prejudice, which is much less of a problem here in the south-east.  They also felt that many of the housing which is “given” to them is inappropriate and therefore becomes quickly run down.  For example, cooking facilities should be put in communal areas out of doors so that communities can socialise rather than being isolated in their own house.  Jen found out about a development where flush toilets were provided in an area where there was no running water!  Jill summed it up by likening them to a people who’ve been through a nuclear holocaust, that will take many, many more generations to recover from. 

 

Here’s some more beach pictures.