Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elepants 40 - 44

AKA The Great Monday Walk 2012!

On Monday I went for a great, big, long walk! I scooped up some of the elephants that are furthest away from me. I knew it would be a long slog, and I'd been dreading anticipating it for a while. I wasn't sure if I could do it all in one go, or even if I'd have the energy to do it at all. But, seeing as I'm such an awesome winner, I did it! I walked all the way up to the Royal Children's Hospital, back past Melbourne Uni, through the squares of Carlton and back into the city. I'm a total champ. It was over 6kms, and almost 2 hours (accounting for a short rest stop and admiration session at the new children's hospital building). I have created a mega-funky collage to illustrate:



The new children's hospital building has an A.Mazing 2-storey high aquarium with sharks and everything inside! I hope you never have to go there for any other reason, but do check it out if you're ever in the area!

Distance Walked: 6.59 km
Elephants Found: 5

I only have one more elephant-finding mission to go before my quest is over. (The last 6 elephants are at Federation Square / Birrarung Marr, so I'll be sweeping them all in one go.) I already feel a little sad that the challenge is nearly over. I've been trying to think of other challenges I can do to keep me motivated, but none I've come up with so far seem quite as exciting as the Baby Elephant Walk.

Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elepants 38 & 39

Yesterday I did the big one! I went direct to the horse's mouth itself (well, elephant's mouth technically) - the Melbourne Zoo! The Husbandy One and I spent all afternoon walking around, looking at all the animals and having a lovely time. These were the two elephant artworks on display just outside the front gates:





And of course, how could I forget seeing little Mali herself?!



Isn't she adorable!??! She stayed close to her mother Dokoon while we were observing her, but seemed to be very curious and playful as well. I was so excited to see her, and the other elephants too. We also saw seals and gorillas and orang utans, and lions and heard them roar and so many other things! It was a very enjoyable afternoon. We spent about 4 hours there wandering around - it would be impossible to track how far we went exactly, so I calculated from the time we spend there instead, and I estimate approx. 8 kms. Nice stuff!

Distance Walked: 8 km
Elephants Found: 3 (2 statues, one real!)

Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elepants 36 & 37

Today I ummed and aahed over whether I felt like hunting more elephants. I certainly wasn't up for a long trip, as I hadn't brought a change of clothes etc to work. I'm starting to feel the pressure: 15 more elephants to go and I only have a week to find them! All of the remaining ones now are too far to make it there and back at lunch time, so I decided to head out to Chinatown after work. The excitement of the bustling streets and enticing Chinese food smells didn't deter me from my mission!

I found these two lovely Malis -





Distance Walked: 2.92 km
Elephants Found: 2

They were both adorable but my favourite has to be Rusty Mali (top), which was welded all over with scrap metal parts: including spark plugs for toenails and a tap on the end of her trunk! Then, as others were choosing their restaurants or heading to their shows, I walked back to the tram stop to start a night snuggled up at home watching TV while Husband was at a bucks night. It's promising to be quietly lovely. =)

I've walked over 30 kms now in my quest to find the elephants. I'm so proud of myself! Next up will be my trip to the zoo to see the statues there, and the real animals, of course!

Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 29-35

Today was an absolutely mammoth effort. I walked all the way from the city to the Botanic Gardens and back, found 7 elephants, and I'm very proud of myself! So here's the story:

I started out at Southbank, where I found these three lovelies:




The bottom one was so beautiful, and it was hidden away in a dark courtyard. What a shame! I had trouble finding it, and only found it when I saw someone coming out from the courtyard who I'd seen taking photos of the other elephants just previously. (Sometimes you need to resort to underhand measures to hunt these elusive elephants!)
Then I walked past the Arts Centre and through the parklands until I found this baby:



I love how the elephant's eyes were also the eyes of the other animals painted on it. A few artists have gone with this concept. I pushed on then and made it to the Botanic Gardens! I hadn't been there for years, and forgotten how much I loved it. I grabbed a map, and working between it and the Zoo app, found my way to these two:




They both have a natural, jungle theme, one with Chinese style painted animals, and the other with a tropical jungle scene. They were both beautiful.
The last elephant of the day was the hardest to find. The app was a bit off as to its location. I wandered around for a bit, then I saw a woman taking a photo of something. She seemed to be on her own, so I didn't think she was taking a photo of another person. I followed my instincts and - yes! she was taking a photo of this lovely:



Normally I don't really like butterflies as a motif, but I loved how they seemed to be coming out of the ground and flying into the sky. After that I sat down and had a rest and a snack. When I checked the time I was amazed at how long I'd been walking for: about an hour and a half! Before I started my walk, I'd assumed that I was going to take the tram back into the city and home from there. But! I felt like more walking! I decided to walk back to the city, and that I did. I walked along the Tan, and saw all the different sorts of people that walk/run along there. It was very interesting. Then when I was getting close to the tram stop, I was still feeling invigorated, and I actually wanted to walk more! But my feet hurt badly, so I called it a day. I've had my sneakers since 2008. Perhaps I should think about a purchase. =)

When I calculated how far I walked today, I was astounded! Over 6 kms! And I barely even noticed it until my feet started hurting. The more I went on, the more I felt I could do. I'm so proud of myself!

Distance Walked: 6.57 km
Elephants Found: 7

Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 27 & 28

Today was just a skip and a jump to see a couple of elephants hanging out on Swanston Street. It was a typical Melbourne day, raining one minute, sunny the next literally!).



Distance Walked: 1.76 km
Elephants Found: 2

Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 25-26

Today I went for a lovely long walk around Docklands, and bagged two elephants. The weather was a bit touch and go there for a while, but by the time I finished work, it was all cleared up and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was meant to be.



Distance Walked: 3.42 km
Elephants Found: 2

Both of these elephants are more about the message than being aesthetically pleasing. I did like them both, though. #26 (right) originally had a lotus flower in its mouth, but it's disappeared now. Bit of a shame. I took many photos of other things while I was on my walk, and I'm thinking of starting a Pinterest board for them or putting them on my Flickr.

It was a longer walk than I'd been anticipating, so I'm quite proud of myself. I may be able to do a shorter walk on Friday, but the next long one will have to wait until next week. I'm planning already, though!

Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 22-24

Today I went for a bit of a wander over to Swanston Street and found three elephants. They were so close together, it almost felt like cheating, but that's the way it is.




Distance Walked: 1.54km
Elephants Found: 3

All of these artworks were just amazing. Again, I can't choose a favourite! I loved the airbrushed trams and skyline on #22, the exquisite animals paintings on #23, and the beautiful mosaic on #24.
I'm planning a nice long walk to balance out this short one, so keep an eye out for that soon.

Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 17-21

Yup, I bagged 5 elephants in one go last night, not to mention walked further than I have so far in the challenge! I had my change of clothes and my backpack, water bottle and a snack all organised - overall it was much better than my last long walk. This time I saw quite a few other people admiring the elephants too, which was really great to see. I enjoyed walking through the gardens so much, I just stopped to look at things and wandered around, as well as power-walking in sections. It was wonderful, good for my soul. ツ



Distance Walked: 3.99 km
(There & to Transport)
Elephants Found: 5

Just a little further and I would have hit 4 km! ツ
In total now I have walked over 15 km! I'm amazed! I'm nearly half-way to my elephant-finding goal, and I wonder how far I will have walked by the end of it!

Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephant No. 16

Only one elephant yesterday as I was busy with many other things. It was beautiful down by the river, though:



Distance Walked: 1.28 km
Elephants Found: 1

I'm currently in the process of planning out how I'm going to do the rest of the walks, so hopefully there'll be more progress soon.

Midweek Ruminating

Welcome to the middle of the week.

I'm pretty much recovered from my mammoth walking session on Monday. On the one hand, I'm proud of myself that I walked so far; on the other hand, feel ashamed because I used to be able to walk much further! I started to get worried that I wouldn't be able to find all 50 elephants before the exhibition is over (21st September). Many of them are an even longer walk away than the ones I found on Monday. But then I started to think about the situation on Monday: I had just finished work and my energy levels were depleted to begin with (I'm doing the jobs of 2 people plus writing up a new procedures manual at the moment); I was wearing my work clothes, which I think is a psychological disadvantage because I don't want to do anything too strenuous in them and ruin them; I was lugging all my work stuff with me, plus the stuff I'd bought at lunch time; all my stuff was in a sling bag which I'd bought cheap at lunch time, so the weight of it was on one side and constantly pulling me off balance; the sling bag had a thin cord strap which dug into my shoulder; the air was quite cold and that makes it harder for me to exercise because of my asthma. Some may call these excuses. I call them facts, and reasons not to beat up on myself. After all, I did complete the walk as intended, didn't I? I can do this! I just have to be more organised and realistic next time.

So these are the things I need to do (in no particular order):
- find my backpack and see if it's suitable, if not, buy a new one;
- look at the locations of the remaining elephants and plan out routes: I may be able to combine up to 6 in a single walk;
- divide the routes up into long and short, and decide which are short enough to do at lunch time, which I need to leave to after work, and which are long enough to merit bringing a change of clothes to work
- the matter of the ultimate 2 elephants: the ones at Melbourne Zoo itself. Aside from being the furthest one away, I don't know if these ones are actually inside the zoo or just outside. If they're inside, and I go after work, then the zoo will be shut by that time and I won't be able to see them. Even if they're outside, and I do get to see them, then it would be pretty disappointing being at the zoo and not being able to go inside! So perhaps Husband and I would have to go on the weekend? But if we do that, then where should I start my walk from?? What a dilemma!
- do it!!
Other thoughts: I should probably make sure I space them out evenly and don't do all the short walks in the beginning, leaving all the longer walks to the end. If it takes me a couple of days to recover from a really long one, then it makes sense to alternate with short ones.

Right, I'm gonna log off right now and start planning!

Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 11-15

Yesterday I went up Victoria Market way to find some more Malis. All of the Malis I found on this walk were so beautiful, I couldn't pick a favourite. This walk was longer than my previous ones, and I really felt it! I was lugging my hand bag and work stuff with me too, which didn't help. I'm quite stiff and sore today. Next time I need to be more organised on the longer trips. I think I need to buy a backpack!



Distance Walked: 3.45 km
(There & to Transport)
Elephants Found: 4

P.S. I have created a page to keep a record of my rewards. It's in the tabs at the top. =)

Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 8 - 11

My elephant-hunting journey took me to Melbourne Central yesterday, and I found 4 more beautiful Mali figures:


Distance Walked: 2.78 km
(There & to Train Station)
Elephants Found: 4


All of today's elephants were beautiful, but I loved especially the whimsy of Mali's Winter Wonderland (bottom-right). She had a real felt hat and trunk-warmer, and slippers with little elephant heads on them! How adorable!

It's been a while since I last went to Melbourne Central, and it's even better now. I want to hang out there more often! I found something else besides the elephants there which made me very happy - the Little Library. It's technically not a library but a book swap display. Fantastic! Ever since I changed jobs, I've really missed the book swap stand at the corporate library in my old building. I don't mind donating my books, but swapping them is even better. Very excited. (If you know me, then you already know I'm a bit of a saddie when it comes to books. :P ).

I don't have time to go searching for any more elephants this week, but I'm planning my next adventure already!

Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 4-7

Yesterday I went for a wander to Freshwater Place, and found 4 baby Malis! It was a lovely sunny afternoon, very enjoyable for a walk.


Distance Walked: 2.16 km
(There & Back)
Elephants Found: 4

No. 2 (top right) was actually painted by Mali herself. The elephants at Melbourne Zoo are encouraged to play with paints as one of their enrichment activities. My favourite however, is the last one I found (bottom right), though I was sad that it was located in a dreary square surrounded by people in suits who were paying no attention to her. This morning I was even inspired to write a haiku about it:

Cold and grey and square
Sunless; painted elephant stands still
One came to admire her

Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 2 & 3

Yesterday (Friday) I went to find some more elephants after work. Even though it was raining, I just really wanted to get out there, and I didn't care how wet I got! (Though I did have my umbrella.) I went down to the bottom end of the city to find these two beauties:


Distance Walked: 2.13 km
(There & to Tram Stop)
Elephants Found: 2

I'm Going Elephant Hunting!

No, no, it's not like that! I'm participating in the Mali In The City event to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Melbourne Zoo, by showcasing their celebrity baby elephant, Mali.



50 life-size fiberglass models of two-year-old Mali have been decorated by artists and placed throughout the city. Afterwards, they'll be auctioned off to raise money for Fight Extinction. I'm terribly excited about it, and I want to find them all! And I vow that I will not drive, I will not take public transport ...I will walk to find them all! What a great way of getting outside and getting some exercise.

Anything worth doing has its hurdles, though. I found out pretty quickly that there's a Mali in the City app, and downloaded it as soon as I could. It has a map of where each elephant model is and details of the artists, along with a Progress Section where you can tick off each one as you find it. There are rewards for reaching certain milestones. I got all excited and planned out which elephant I was going to look for first. I thought I'd start with an easy one - it's only half a block from my work! So I went down there, took a picture of it, and went to log it in the app. Only!........

When I got there, I realised the log function doesn't work on my ipod! It must use GPS to check that I'm actually at the spot where the model is, because it wouldn't let me log it, saying "I don't know where you are." So it must only work on phones and other devices with internet access. But I don't have that! I was so upset I nearly cried! I was ready to throw in the towel completely!

But then I calmed down a bit and realised - I can still do this! Instead of logging my finds on the app, I'll log them on my blog! Yeah! Sure, I won't be eligible for their rewards (not that I even know what they are), but I'll make up some of my own! It'll be even better, because I'll calculate how far I walked to find each model (that'll be easy using the walk/jog/run website). Then at the end I'll have a grand total of how far I walked; imagine how good I'll feel!

OhMiGawd, I just had an idea! I'll call it the Baby Elephant Walk!!! Does everyone amuse themselves this much, or is it just me??

So anyway, I'll start out with determining the rewards for each milestone of the Baby Elephant Walk:
1 elephant found = a packet of chai tea
5 = jewellery-making accessories (ebay)
10 = crochet hook and wool
15 = lunch out (salad, of course!)
20 = a massage
25 = something from Etsy
30 = a trip to Daiso
35 = wool from BWM
40 = a trip to the book shop
45 = a longer massage
50 = new sneakers

I might change my mind at some point about what I want exactly, and how much I'm going to spend, but they're the main things that would get me walking right at this very moment. =)

The Journey Has Begun...

As I mentioned before, I found my first elephant today! So this is check-in No. 1. I was so upset when I couldn't use the app for the first elephant that I forgot to take a picture of it. So I'll use a picture of my reward instead.


Distance Walked: 0.14km
(There & Back)


It's not much now, but wait and see!