Day 3
November 1, 2011
Day 3 has been fairly uneventful, though it started on a rather disappointing note. One of my favorite uniquely Australian phenomena is the Big Objects series. All around Australia, there are models of normal objects and animals, replicated on a much larger scale for no apparent reason. OK, partially for tourism (I'm told an entire tourist park was run around the Giant Pineapple), but I prefer to think of them like Stonehenge or those South American rocks that slide across the desert, that is to say, quasi-supernatural phenomenon. As soon as we decided to drive to Perth, I started looking up Big Objects along our route. So far we have seen the Big Plane, Big Beer Can, Big Picnic Bench, Big Gulah (like a parrot, but more annoying. It's possible) and the Big Kangaroo. All have been spectacular. Except the Big Plane, which really wasn't much bigger than a real commercial airliner, thought to be fair, it would have to be truly massive to dwarf one of those. It does beg the question, however, why try for a Big Plane in the first place? Why not a Big Biplane? Or a Big Glider? Or even just change the name to the Big Model Airplane (sneaky!)? But I digress. Anyway, imagine my surprise when, as we were leaving Peterborough, I saw a sign for the Big Gum Tree, which wasn't even listed on any of my maps! How exciting! So we trundled off down this dirt road (nearly every road besides the main highway we are driving on is dirt) for a couple hundred metres, only to find a big gum tree. As in a REAL tree, not fashioned whimsically out of fibreglass and painted gaudy colors. Imagine my disgust. You just shouldn't be able to call something Big when it is really only big. Write to your Members of Parliament, Australia!!!
Fortunately, the rest of the day passed without incident. We continued through the rolling hills of South Australia onto our next stop at (according to our brochure) the quaint, charming seaside town of Ceduna. Supposedly the town got it's name from the word Cheedoona, which means "come and rest awhile" in the native Aboriginal language, and it's not that it wasn't charming, but a four page brochure for a town with two streets seems...excessive. Fortunately, our afternoon was planned for us. The Melbourne Cup was on, and, like any good Australians, we were headed to the pub to place our bets on the popular horse race. Unfortunately, because we were running late, Jamie had to hustle to get our bets in in time and he accidentally bet on the wrong race. Improbably, we won 40 dollars. Because, as I mentioned, Ceduna is minuscule, and contrary to what the brochure claimed, there is nothing to do, we decided to take a from the locals and spend the afternoon "getting on the piss." We rounded off the the evening by purchasing oysters from a trailer (it was in the brochure so it's safe?) and retiring to our tent with a movie. Tomorrow, we enter the Nullabor.
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