Donut Days and Emus

In mid-July when I last wrote a blog, Melbourne had just started what we thought would be a 6-week lockdown to try to bring our COVID-19 cases under control. That 6-weeks turned into 15 weeks where we weren't allowed to travel more than 5 km (3.1 miles) from our homes, could only exercise outdoors for 1 hour a day, had a curfew, masks were mandatory and there were very strict restrictions on acceptable reasons to leave your home. You weren't allowed to work from your office unless the company qualified as an "essential business" and then you had to carry a permit with you when travelling to and from work or face a hefty fine. Dan Andrews, the Victorian Premier (like a governor), had a press conference every day for more than 120 days in a row. It got to the point where we could tell if it was bad news or good new based on what Dan was wearing; we all prayed for the North Face jacket rather than the suit coat.

Mom and Joey Eastern Grey Kangaroos

At this point (Nov 22nd), we've had 23 consecutive days without a new COVID-19 case or a death in Victoria (so many double donut days!). We are down to 1 active case in the entire state of Victoria and there are only 91 active cases in all of Australia. Turns out, strict lockdowns work as long as everyone is willing to follow the rules for the benefit of the entire community. While the lockdown was really hard, it has been phenomenal to watch Victorians, specifically Melburnians, come together to beat this. I'll stop singing Victoria's praises now. Seriously though, Australia is amazing. There, done. 😇

The 'ring of steel' around Melbourne went away on November 9th, meaning that people in the metro Melbourne area could travel out into Regional Victoria for the first time since early July. Ross and I took advantage of the increased freedom by going camping in Grampians National Park last weekend. The Grampians are located about three and a half hours northwest of Melbourne. It was our first time visiting and we're already planning a trip back. 

Kangaroos and Emus in one picture?!? It's like we're in the Land of Oz.

We took off from work a bit early on Friday and headed west. Unfortunately we did not factor in the increased traffic and it ended up taking us an hour to get out of Melbourne. Besides that, we had an uneventful drive and stopped for fish and chips in a country town along the way. Driving into Hall's Gap (touristy town in central Grampians), we were surprised to see hundreds of kangaroos in and around the town. They were everywhere. We also saw a handful of emus. I just love Australian wildlife.

Milkmaids

We eventually made it to our campground only to find that someone had taken our camp spot. We ended up setting our tent up on the grass and speaking with the guys who were set up in our spot when they rolled back into camp around 9:30 p.m. The guys were super nice and apologetic; turns out a family had taken their spot. Given that the guys were leaving in the morning and it was late, we just slept on the grass.

Manuka

On Saturday morning we drove back into Hall's Gap and swung by the visitor's centre. After checking out the trail options, we decided to hike up Mount Rosea. It was about 9 km roundtrip. While that is a bit shorter than our normal day hiking distance, we hadn't been hiking since March, so it was quite nice. The Grampians are a pretty dry mountain range so most of the hike was through low brush and quite exposed to the sun. We had coolish weather so it was quite pleasant but it would be a beast during the summer. We had lunch at the top of Mount Rosea and then had a nice hike back to the car.

Following an ice cream break in Halls Gap we drove back out into the range and did a couple super short walks/overlooks to Mackenzies Falls and Boroka Lookout. We also kept up our streak of always seeing a snake while out hiking - this trip it was a Common Brown (2nd most venomous snake in the world). We did our favourite car-camping dinner (burritos!) and fell asleep to kookaburras and cicadas. 

MacKenzie Falls

Boroka Lookout

Mountain Dragon

Blue Tinsel-Lily

Sunday morning we woke up to rolling thunder and some light rain. We had been planning on having a short day anyway as we needed to get back to Melbourne for groceries, laundry, etc. and it was supposed to be in the low 90s, so we did a quick breakfast and pulled down our tent. From our campground, we took the Grampians Tourist Road south toward Dunkeld. It is a beautiful drive down the valley between the Serra Range to the west and the William Range to the east. When we got to the southern end of the park, we did a quick walk up the Piccaninny and enjoyed good views of Mount Abrupt and out over the surrounding farms.

Mount Abrupt

After hiking the Piccaninny, we got back on the road to Melbourne and I turned my phone on for the first time since Friday (no mobile reception where we were). We had asked a couple friends to check in on our cats over the weekend and I had received a number of text messages from them that culminated in one saying that they had taken our cats to the emergency vet for potential lily poisoning. 

Murphy shouldn't be yellow.

Rewind a week. One of the restrictions we had under the COVID rules was that only one person per household was allowed to go shopping on a given day. Ross and I had been trading off who did the grocery shopping each week because it was a treat to leave the house. The week before we went camping, it was my turn and I picked up a bouquet of day lilies to add some colour to our apartment. They hadn't really started to bloom until Wednesday or Thursday so we just left them on a side table when we went camping. Also, neither Ross nor I knew that they are toxic to cats.

It turns out that Murphy got into them on Saturday. When our friends stopped by he had pollen on his legs and face. They were a little confused and didn't notice the flowers. After doing some internet searches, they went back on Sunday to check on the cats and noticed the lilies. At that point, they called the vet and were told to bring the cats in asap.

Ross and I got to talk to the vet while driving back to Melbourne and give them permission to treat the cats. Murphy and Cooper ended up being on IV fluids for a bit over 24-hours and had blood work done multiple times. It turns out that lilies can cause acute kidney failure in cats so it's good that our cat sitters are very contentious people. We were able to pick the cats up from the emergency vet on Monday night and then took them to our vet on Thursday for follow-up blood work. Murphy's blood work showed that he had gotten some of the pollen (i.e. kidney function was slightly affected) but that he'd made it to the vet in time to stop any long term damage. At this point both cats are fine and we're never buying lilies again.

Double trouble

Cooper

Murphy helping me work.

Ross and I both took half of Thursday and all day Friday off this week for Thanksgiving. We had been planning on going backpacking but after the adventure with the cats last weekend, we'll probably stay a bit closer to home. 

To all of our friends and family in the US, please be careful, wear a mask and consider having a Zoom Thanksgiving. Sending much love.