After riding next to roaring cars, utes, 4WDs and trucks for about an hour (they actually have bike paths next to the highway here!), I took a turn toward some actual trees. I stumbled on a government house or whatever. It was near some lake, but that's all I know (yah... that's clear). Anyway, it had a dedicated bike path, so I got on it. It was great. It was quiet except for a plethora of birds calling out. Just a nice bit of nature right outside the city. When I took a turn towards more populated areas (via the university, where I had a cup of coffee), I suddenly ended up in front of the Old Parliament. More interesting was what was going on at the opposite end: the Aboriginal tent embassy. It's a non-official, self-proclaimed embassy defending the aboriginals' rights. And there was a ceremony going on. A troop of soldiers (Australian) were walking through a cloud of sweetly-scented smoke, tipping their hat as they were doing so and saluting the Aboriginal flag. I was told later that they were an army band passing through. They wanted to pay their respects to aboriginals (hence the hat-tipping and saluting). The smoke was of a peace fire. I have to say that it was quite impressive and definitely one of the highlights of the bike trip. The second and last highlight was of a more mundane nature: a cricket game. Never actually seen one live and even though this was just a boys' game, it was nice. I spent about ten minutes in the shade, drinking water and watching the game. Scoring's still elusive to me, but I liked watching it. Now if I could only find a rugby match (union, league, AFL, don't care)..... but that's what Melbourne's for, I reckon!
So where are all the pictures, you ask? I took quite a few, but they have to wait - this computer doesn't have a working card reader. Patience
Enjoy!
