Hello again-
I've been in Melbourne for a while now after having spent most of my second week in Australia on the road with my dad driving down the southeastern coast from Sydney to Melbourne, going part of the way on the Princes Highway, a sort of Pacific Coast Highway - type road. We made several stops along the coast, starting with Jervis Bay. It's known for it's white sand beaches and clear blue water. This combination was a little a bit deceiving because the ocean looked like the Caribbean but felt like Alaska! The water was FREEZING cold! It took me a couple of days to get used to the water. Needless to say, I've got my summer tan going early with all the sitting around on the beach rather than swimming in the water.
My dad and I went on a dolphin watching tour and saw quite a few dolphins in the bay, went kayaking, and slept and read on the beach. It was very nice. I also learned how to drive on the other side of the road. Huskisson is a town so small that it doesn't even have a traffic light, so this was the perfect place for me to grow accustomed to having everything in the car switched around. We stayed in a nice bed and breakfast where they served us the BEST tomatoes in the entire world. I actually don't really like tomatoes, but these were amazing. I know, weird.
After Jervis Bay, we continued down the coast to our next stop, Pebbly Beach. There weren't really very many pebbles, but there were several wild kangaroos grazing on the grassy area by the beach! They seemed pretty used to having people around them, so they let us come pretty close. I didn't try to pet any of them though because they have the ability to punch you really hard and then claw you up pretty well with their paws. I took lots of pics, but with my regular film camera, so sorry, no photos right now. Then we walked out to the giant white sand beach where there were maybe 10 other people. Crazy! The whole trip was like this with these miles long white sand beaches and only a few other people on the beach besides us.
The next beach was at a place called Mimosa Rocks. Almost all the beaches were parts of national parks, so we were basically national park/beach-hopping down the coast. Anyway, at Mimosa Rocks, there really were rocks, so we could only visit one beach really. We set up on the sand to eat lunch and wait for the sky to get sunnier. While we were waiting, I read and my dad slept. About an hour later, I looked up and the 4 or 5 other groups of people who had also been on this big beach were all gone! We were the only ones left and the sky looked like a bad storm was coming. So we explored around the tidal pools a little, saw a lot of crabs and small fish, then took off for the little town that was our stop for the night, Merimbula. Here I met a very nice Rottweiler named Bella - she made me think that maybe these kinds of dogs aren't so bad. That night there was, in fact, a pretty strong storm and Bella was barking all through the storm - apparently, she's afraid of thunder! We also had a bit of nature inside. A huge tarantula was on the window INSIDE our room. The host of the bed and breakfast said that it was harmless though and just shooed it out with a broom. The next day there was another one on our car!
Okay, next and last stop before Melbourne was yet another national park called Cape Conran. This place was so remote that most Australians have never even heard of it. We stayed in a cabin run by the national park service. I wasn't really sure what we would find, would the cabin be a filthy box with 4 walls, a roof, and plenty of bugs and gross things? I had no idea. Well, turned out that the cabin was super nice and clean and had a full kitchen, flushing toilet, hot water, and showers. So, rough it we did not, but live a little outdoorsy (e.g. didn't shower because we decided to wait for the nice Hyatt hotel showers that awaited us in Melbourne), we did. To keep with the theme, we ate canned beans and chips - and diet coke. While we were getting ready for dinner, guess what we saw... a kookabura bird! It was really cute and looked like it was used to people feeding it as it kept opening up it's beak wide, but I didn't give it anything to eat... we were eating beans, for god's sake! Also, earlier in the day, on our way back from a hike, we spotted 2 adult wallabies standing in some tall grass right as the sun was setting. It looked like a postcard with the light behind them, but as we pulled the car closer to take pics, they took off. Seems they're not as people friendly as the kangaroos at Pebbly Beach.
Okay, so I've been in Melbourne for about a week and a half now, but I think this email is long enough, so I'll stop here. Sorry no pics, will try to send some along later. Take care and sorry if this email was too long!
bisous,
miki :)
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