General Update:
Still living with Sally and Steve Ahern in a historic suburb
of Melbourne. To recap, I was put in touch with Sally through our family
friend, Diane Arnold, who went to boarding school with Sally for a year.
The Aherns have been generous beyond belief, letting me stay with them as a
member of their family for the past three weeks. Sally has taken me on
two-day trips to Lorne, their beach house on the Great Ocean Road, and to her
parent's house in Ecucha (more about this later). As I mentioned before, tomorrow I’m heading
out to Qdos, an art gallery/cafe/pottery studio in the forests of Lorne, a
beautiful town on the Great Ocean Road. I'll be working four to six hours
a day for room and board, taking walks, and living a very different lifestyle
than here in the city.
Echuca!
Imagine if the Mississippi River ran through the Wild Wild
West in a sleepy town in Australia, and that’s Ecucha. In its hey-day, in the mid- to late-1800s, Ecucha
was the largest inland port in the southern hemisphere. And though the industry has been replaced with
railways and trucks, fortunately, a section of the city has kept its historic charm.
Heading to the port, you walk down a wide
dirt road lined with buildings that looked largely as they did a hundred years
ago; you can visit a Penny Arcade, taste fresh fudge, or buy souvenirs made
from Red Gum trees; paddle steamers puff down the Murray River, amazingly now over
fifteen meters lower than it was when the port was in full operation. Ecucha is cute and historic and very country without
being overly touristy or kitsch, thank goodness. Sally treated us to a ride on a paddle
steamer that is over a hundred years old, and it was wonderfully relaxing,
puttering down the river, breathing in the smoke from the wood-fired engine,
watching it puff in all directions and disappear into the blue sky. The name “Echuca” comes from an aboriginal name
meaning “the meeting of two waters”, but I couldn’t help hearing “eh-CHOO-ka, eh-CHOO-ka”
coming from the engine as we floated down the Murray, tracing the boundary
between the states of Victoria and New South Wales.
We stopped off at a vineyard to have lunch, and waiting for
her parents to join us, Maxime and I laid in the grass, thankful for the warm
weather and shining sun that apparently had been here, hiding from us in
Melbourne all this time. After a
delicious lunch (vineyards always have the most fabulous food), we boarded the boat
once again for our peaceful ride back.
That night, Sally, her mother and I played Scrabble, and Maxime,
not yet confident enough in English to play, helped me win! Her family was delightful and Sally’s mother,
Jill, nominated herself as our Australian grandma!
Hm…well…there’s really not that much more to say about
Ecucha… so, uh, enjoy the photos!
