Trail Log 1995-1997 - Lamar at Colorado State University

Drove home in the dark. Kentucky fried chicken halfway back home.
Penguins are found only in the Southern Hemisphere.
July 28, Sunday. Drove southwest to Geelong (pronounced juhlong), then Torquay, and the Great
Ocean Road. Kangaroos on a golf course at Anglesea. About 50 seen, all sizes, said to be
kangaroos and mostly females and joeys.
Lunch at Lorne in a scenic picnic area.. Cloudy bright at best, often overcast. On to Apollo Bay,
got motel about 2.00 p.m. It is quite scenic between Lorne and Apollo Bay, a seaside drive.
Continued west. Some nice Eucalyptus forests here.
Near Princeton, black swans, 8 of them. Watched them some while, the first I have seen. Dusky
moorhen on pond.
Reached the Twelve Apostles. Some eight seen from one location.
Loch Ard Gorge. A ship wrecked here in 1878, 52 people died, 2 survived. A narrow gorge carved
in by the sea. This is the Shipwreck Coast. The Island Archway (took picture). Muttonbird Island
(short-tailed shearwater). This bird flies to the Aleutian Islands up by Japan and down the
California coast, 30,000 km, up to 600 km per day.
I walked in to the Blowhole, 100 meters inland and yet the sea has carved out an underground
tunnel this far in.
July 29, Monday. Drove back to Melbourne. Overcast day. Leisurely drive, little traffic on the road.
Looked at juvenile Eucalyptus leaves.
Stopped at Anglesea golf course again. Took pictures of kangaroos. Bought American hot dogs
for lunch.
Jane did a woolen museum tour in Geelong.
Rain
Eucalyptus - sheds its bark once a year, rather than its leaves! Nearly 90% of Australia's plants are
found nowhere else in the world (endemics). Most plant families have members with relatively
small, rigid or hard leaves, schlerophylls, adapted to dry conditions and poor soil. There are layers
of hard cells beneath the leaf surfaces that keep them rigid. Or they have long, narrow leaves. Or
no leaves, reduced to scales along a green stem.
She-oak. The wood is like oak -- hard, dense, straight grained, but not as good a real oak (he-man
oak!), a weaker oak. But others doubted this etymology.
Eu-calyptus. Eu-calyptra, a true cap. The flower buds of all species have an operculum (cap). The
world's tallest hardwood is a eucalypt in Tasmania, nearly 100 meters tall, the length of a football
field.
Grass trees. Xanthorrhoea, a distant relative of lilies. Among the slowest growing plants in the
world, it puts out only one new circle of leaves each year. They go back 100 million years.
Australian farmers lose 4 kg. of soil to produce a loaf of bread. The soils are old, and from alternate