The last week

I've been on two trips in the past week or so. Nice to finally do some travelling! The first was last week, one day to Wilsons Promontory. It was so beautiful there, lush hills (though also rocky hills since the whole area is made of granite), beaches with blue water, wildlife... Our tour group had a very good day exploring. We did two walks and the first one, to a viewpoint, was quite tough for me. It was fairly steep, but I felt so out of shape, lagging at the back of the group, and sweating like a pig. Partly that was due to the fact that there was hardly a breeze, though normally it's really windy out on the Prom. So I just got hotter and hotter and had no relief. I've never sweated so much. But I made it and the view was totally worth it, a green valley of gum trees coming down from the hills and heading towards one side of sea. Going down was much easier and I found that the sandal-y shoes I bought for walking do well on slick surfaces like all the granite we were climbing over. Later in the day we also took the scenic route to one of the beaches - more beautiful views and interesting rock formations. The beach we went to is called Squeaky Beach because the sand is made of very fine granite and it makes a squeaky, whistling sound when you walk on it. I think it would have been nicer to have called it Singing Beach, but oh well. I dipped my aching, hot feet in the water and we sat about on the beach soaking it all in. When it was time to head back to Melbourne, we stopped at a flat bushy area to look for wildlife, which we definitely found. The kangaroos had come out to feed and there were countless on this plain. You could get quite close to them before they'd hop off, it was amazing. Plus there was a female with the legs of a joey poking out of her pouch! It was awesome. We saw some emus in the distance as well and openings to wombat burrows, but no wombats, though we saw two along the road (alive! not roadkill... Or as our tour guide called them "sleeping" wombats). Also many birds, like huge cockatoos, and an evil bird that swooped in on me and this other girl.

Yesterday I got back from my 3 day trip to the Great Ocean Road, a famous drive that is rather similar to California's Hwy 1, or the twistier parts of 101 in Oregon. I wish I could have stayed much longer and enjoyed some of the beaches more, but I was glad to have gone for a couple of days at least. The weather wasn't brilliant, but the water felt warmer than at the Prom and the beaches were practically empty. Not so for the big tourist spots though, like the 12 Apostles, these sandstone rocks just off the shore further west down the coast. They're pretty famous and much photographed and so it was swarming with tourists there. Still, quite pretty. I also did a treetop walk in an area called the Otways, a forested point sticking a bit south. They've built these high platforms in the forest, so you can walk amongst the treetops, 20-30 meters above the ground. Plus there was a tower that went about 40 meters up. Kinda freaky, it all is a bit wobbly to be able to sustain high winds, but I liked it, and it was an amazing area. Got lots of photos there, to be posted someday.

Not so fun about both of the trips: the flies. I've heard about flies being bad in Australia, and their numbers have picked up in Melbourne as the weather has been warmer, but it wasn't until these trips that I experienced enough flies to drive a person nuts. We'd be walking in the Prom and I'd notice how the person ahead of me had a whole mess of flies on their back and backpack, and then I'd realize that I probably had the same, and yeah, there'd be a bunch on my bag when I took it off. In the meantime about 6-10 are constantly in your face as you walk, going in your ear, up your nose, landing on the corner of your mouth - anywhere that is the most obnoxious. They'd land on my glasses, so I'm glad I wear them or I guess they'd be on my eyes. It was bad enough while walking, but then when you'd stop, you weren't a moving target anymore and they were everywhere. It was hard taking photos - either one would get in the photo or they'd land on your nose and tickle you and you couldn't get the photo taken... They are vicious, vicious things and it's only going to be worse in the outback in the middle of summer...

I drove a rental to the Great Ocean Road, so I survived 3 days of driving on the left! And I managed to get the car safely back through Melbourne, though I went on this roundabout journey since I'm more used to walking than driving, but I found my way eventually. I also had to do two hook turns in the process, which I did successfully! Very proud of that. Funnily enough, I had the same car as I had the last time I was in the US, a Hyundai Accent, so it was a bit familiar. It was all difficult at first though, but I could tell how used to it I got by the time I got back to Melbourne and realized I was much more confident than when I left. I never accidentally pulled onto the right side of the road (there are a lot of tourists on that road though, so there are a lot of signs reminding you "Drive on the left in Australia"!), but I did at first hit the wipers a lot instead of the blinker because those are switched around on the steering wheel. Also I never quite got used to the gear lever being to my left; thankfully I had an automatic...

So I leave for New Zealand on Saturday. I feel all ready to tackle their roads now, possibly even in a stick shift if that's what I get. And looking forward to a new country and I'm sure much amazing scenery.