...and I'm off!!

Passport stamped?  Yup!!  Suitcase found and collected?  Yup!!  Tour Guide waiting?  Yup!!  Stepping on Aussie soil?  Yup!!  ...and I'm off and running on a lifetime dream trip to Australia!!

One never realizes just how draining it is flying halfway around the world until you step on the ground and try and 'hit it running.'  Thank goodness for adrenalin and hot, long showers to revitalize you!  Oh...and also caffeine to boot!!

...and hit the ground running is just what happened the first day in Australia! 

After a wonderful hot shower off we went up into the Dandenong Mountains which are pretty much outside the Tour Guide's back door as she lives in the foot hills of the Dandenongs. 

If you take away the rain forest type atmosphere the Dandenongs so remind me of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia especially with their hazy blue appearance...and the winding mountain roads with hairpin turns back and forth as you wind your way upward are a definite similarity.

In a short time we were at the William Ricketts Sanctuary which is a sculpture park originally known as Potter's Sanctuary.  William Ricketts, though never trained as a potter, is known for the power of his vision of a modern Australia that embraces Aboriginal spirituality and respect for the natural world.  In the 1960s the Victorian government bought the sanctuary from Ricketts and made it into a public park.  Ricketts continued to live here and create until his death in 1993.

This is the entrance to the pathway that winds its way through the sanctuary...you feel as if you are being ushered into the rain forest by these two sculptures.  It is an amazing walk through the rain forest that you find yourself going on and at each twist and turn you are seeing yet another amazing sculpture amidst the trees and ferns.  Finding myself surrounded by such a vast array of green after the cold white of a Minnesota winter causes one to breathe in deeply and envelope your senses with the wonders of the rain forest and I found myself feeling a calm and quietness surrounding me that I hadn't felt in such a long time...it was bordering on magical and the talent that William Ricketts had really was amazing. 

I do not know just how many sculptures were in the sanctuary but I do know that I did not succeed in photographing every one of them though I gave it my best try.  What a fabulous choice of an introduction to Australia this was and to think I'd only been on Aussie soil for a few mere hours.  Little did I know the vast amount of wonders I would see in the oncoming days!!

If you would like to see more pictures taken at the William Ricketts Sanctuary here is a link to that photo album on Picasa: Play slideshow