Friday, September 15, 2006
Ozland!
Well it is almost week 2 in Australia for Dori and I and we are still amazed by the sights and wonders. We started our trip two Mondays ago by landing in Melbourne where we picked up our cool toyota yaris that we hired. Next it was off to Torquay for the first leg of our trip. This was the first surf stop, where we bought new wetsuits and launched our Novice Australian Surf Tour. The water was around 13 degrees and the air was about 13 degrees. Not too bad, but not exactly exciting either. We had a great time and checked out the Bells Beach Surf Competition.
The next step was to surf/camp our way up the coast. We stopped in all the little surf towns like Anglesea, Lorne, Warrnambool and Port Fairy. We didn't spend a lot of time surfing as it takes a lot of energy to cook breaky, tear down camp and face the cold wet wind. We did enjoy the turquoise waters and wonderful sandy beach breaks. I enjoyed Anglesea the most for a surf town, it had both a nice feel and a central location to some great surf spots.
I'm fairly certain we picked an ideal time to tour. The was no one around, schools were still in session and the weather was fair to nice. Any later in the season and I imagine it gets to be a little like feeding time at the zoo (aussie saying, check it out). The driving was interesting. Two main skills we needed. Remembering where traffic would be coming from and how to navigate two lane roundabouts. I had a couple of minor oopsies as I pulled out, but they were on empty roads where I had no point of reference and forgot where I was. The other sticky bit was the two lane roundabouts. It is a bit nervy to come blasting around a circle at 40kph when you're realy not sure where you're going. I finally figured out that the inside circle gets to go straight through, right or a u-turn, while the left hand lane gets to go left or straight thru. All in all it has been a good time with the driving on the left being quite natural.
After we left the coast we headed north into the arid regions of Australia. Not quite the outback, but definitely a bit remote. There were towns every 25k, so it didn't feel completely alone. After we passed through the Coonawarra wine country we camped in the bush. This was the most beautiful campsite I've been at. We were the only ones there. Well aside from the emus, at least I think that's what left that massive dropping... The amazing part was night. There were no sounds. Nothing. No crickets. No birds. Just silence. It was like being in a cave. We had a great sleep and discovered that we could see the wolf spiders at night. The wolf spider eyes were so big that they reflected like diamonds in our headlamps. You could see them everywhere in the sand.
The next day we pulled into Mildura, which is in another section of wine country. This area is heavily irrigated, and it grows a large portion of Australia's fresh fruit. The orange trees were everywhere! We even saw a *bag* of avocados for $2.00! We booked into the Grand Hotel, which is, well, grand! It was the most amazing package deal. Dinner for two by a famous Ozzie chef named Stefano, luxurious room with a balcony over the heated pool, followed by a gourmet picnic basket the next day. After we enjoyed the picnic basket on the river, we started the next day with a huge breakfast buffet. Back bacon, fried spinach, mushrooms, fried tomatoes, poached eggs and sultana toast. It was amazing! Today we enjoyed the complimentary coffees and we're head to the brewery tours next before we eat the the gourmet pizza shop (once again, all this was included in the package).
Tomorrows plan is to try and catch some yabbies and cook 'em up before we go to Wolf Mail and then the Grampians to begin climbing. If you're yearning for some great Aussie sports, catch the finals game of the AFL footy tourney. What an amazing game! These guys are animals. We've been loosely following them and I have to say I'm impressed by the sport.
The next step was to surf/camp our way up the coast. We stopped in all the little surf towns like Anglesea, Lorne, Warrnambool and Port Fairy. We didn't spend a lot of time surfing as it takes a lot of energy to cook breaky, tear down camp and face the cold wet wind. We did enjoy the turquoise waters and wonderful sandy beach breaks. I enjoyed Anglesea the most for a surf town, it had both a nice feel and a central location to some great surf spots.
I'm fairly certain we picked an ideal time to tour. The was no one around, schools were still in session and the weather was fair to nice. Any later in the season and I imagine it gets to be a little like feeding time at the zoo (aussie saying, check it out). The driving was interesting. Two main skills we needed. Remembering where traffic would be coming from and how to navigate two lane roundabouts. I had a couple of minor oopsies as I pulled out, but they were on empty roads where I had no point of reference and forgot where I was. The other sticky bit was the two lane roundabouts. It is a bit nervy to come blasting around a circle at 40kph when you're realy not sure where you're going. I finally figured out that the inside circle gets to go straight through, right or a u-turn, while the left hand lane gets to go left or straight thru. All in all it has been a good time with the driving on the left being quite natural.
After we left the coast we headed north into the arid regions of Australia. Not quite the outback, but definitely a bit remote. There were towns every 25k, so it didn't feel completely alone. After we passed through the Coonawarra wine country we camped in the bush. This was the most beautiful campsite I've been at. We were the only ones there. Well aside from the emus, at least I think that's what left that massive dropping... The amazing part was night. There were no sounds. Nothing. No crickets. No birds. Just silence. It was like being in a cave. We had a great sleep and discovered that we could see the wolf spiders at night. The wolf spider eyes were so big that they reflected like diamonds in our headlamps. You could see them everywhere in the sand.
The next day we pulled into Mildura, which is in another section of wine country. This area is heavily irrigated, and it grows a large portion of Australia's fresh fruit. The orange trees were everywhere! We even saw a *bag* of avocados for $2.00! We booked into the Grand Hotel, which is, well, grand! It was the most amazing package deal. Dinner for two by a famous Ozzie chef named Stefano, luxurious room with a balcony over the heated pool, followed by a gourmet picnic basket the next day. After we enjoyed the picnic basket on the river, we started the next day with a huge breakfast buffet. Back bacon, fried spinach, mushrooms, fried tomatoes, poached eggs and sultana toast. It was amazing! Today we enjoyed the complimentary coffees and we're head to the brewery tours next before we eat the the gourmet pizza shop (once again, all this was included in the package).
Tomorrows plan is to try and catch some yabbies and cook 'em up before we go to Wolf Mail and then the Grampians to begin climbing. If you're yearning for some great Aussie sports, catch the finals game of the AFL footy tourney. What an amazing game! These guys are animals. We've been loosely following them and I have to say I'm impressed by the sport.
