Everytime I turn on the radio I hear One Dimension! Makes me think of my own boy band obsession. Ben and I rented a camper van and drove along The Great Ocean Road over the last couple days. Crazy to think about being at the bottom of the map (not counting the south pole.) I got to play and swim in the water for an hour at the last beach we went to and had a blast! The water is so clear and beautiful. I'm always amazed by the power and beauty of the ocean.
The road trip has been fun. The road signs in Australia are of course different and I find them amusing, especially the one where the tire tracks of the car criss-cross over each other behind the car -warning that it's slippery. Ben's been doing a good job staying to the left, but it definitely is confusing at times! We've seen a kangaroo, lots of sheep and cows, beautiful parrots and several koalas! (A parrot landed on my head at one stop!) The plants and trees are also fascinating. There are incredibly green giant ferns everywhere!
Earlier in the week we managed to figure our way around Sydney with public transit quite proficiently. One afternoon we were trying to get back to our hostel in Melborne and got all mixed up on which train to take, switching from platform to platform as directed by several "informed" people. Eventually we found the right platform but hopped on the express train and blew past our station! So we got off and found the right train on the other side of the platform and it was about to leave the station so I ran and hopped on an turned to Ben to see the door close between us. It was one of those movie moments with our hands reached toward each other saying,"nooooooooooo...." I sat down laughing and got off at our station while Ben went to the information box to find out when the next train was coming and when he pushed the green button it started to dial the operator which he didn't want so he tried to cancel it and pushed the red button, "What's your emergency?" Haha! He walked away.
Our first night with the camper it got dark sooner than we'd planned on but fortunately we ran into another group of travelers at the waterfall we stopped to see and they showed us the way to a free campsite! We had a wonderful time hanging out with them under a tarp suspended over the gap between our campers. Everyone had a different accent but we were all speaking English, for the most part. They were great!
Visiting all the big tourist attractions along The Great Ocean Road made me realize how many ways there are to travel. I like our way. If we didn't have a rugby game to get to and a farm waiting for us it would be fun to make every stop and check out every interesting roadside attraction along the way, but we've had to pick and choose. My favorites were the Loch and Gorge and the beach after London Bridge where I got to play in the waves!
We've survived on potatoes, carrots, "rocket" (which is arugula) and spinach, cashews and apples. We also had some rice to incorporate. And peanut butter! I've created some interesting concoctions and they've been yummy. Sad thing is...
I've run out of chocolate!
We're on our way now to the Collingwood game at the Eliad stadium~ exciting Rugby game! Our first day wandering around Melborne we came across a rugby team practicing out on a feild in the middle of a park. They were really good and it was fascinating to watch. There was a family there and one of the women was calling out to all the men calling them "baby" and cheering them on. I ended up asking a guy who had been talking with one of the players and found out it was one of the more famous professional teams in the Rugby union! Comparable with The Lakers, he said. They were casually signing autographs for that family and chatting briefly with them. One girl kept handing her 4 month old baby to the players and taking their picture. It was exciting but we didn't know who was who so Ben wouldn't take my picture with them. One guy kicked a ball from halfway across the feild right into the recycling bin that held their balls! I should've known he was one of their best players. We ended up wandering around until we found the stadium they're playing at today and bought tickets!
So we have one more night in Melborne then we catch a 4am shuttle to the airport and hop on a plane back to Sydney. Our harvest got pushed up again so we'll head to Steph's collect our stuff and then hop on another plane at noon to Dubbo where we'll meet Jono! And so it begins!
(Sorry for the lame photos ~ all the great ones are on the camera...)
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