Day 72 (17 August): Southern Surf Coast
I took an early flight from Sydney to Melbourne where I rented a car and avoided the city altogether, as I headed Southwest from the airport to the 'Great Ocean Road' which is akin to California's Pacific Coast Highway although the coast line is very different. Incidently the flight had some decent scenery out the windows as we flew over Canberra (Australia's capital) and the Snowy Mountains (no joke that is their name and yes they were snowy.)
The part of the 'Great Ocean Road' that I drove down today was along the part of Australia's Southern Coast (which seems like a strange concept, but yes they actually have coasts for each cardinal direction) know for surfing. As such, I found a place to rent a surfboard and wetsuit, making Australia the fourth country I've surfed in. Unfortunately, however, the break was probably the worst along the coast, but happened to be the only place where I could walk from a rental shop to the water that was open. Further along the coast, I drove by a golf course that had Kangaroos in the wild hoping around it while people played golf.
I eventually made it to a town called Lorne where I spent the night and went on a short hike to a waterfall there.
Observations:
1) A bunch of people told me that Sydney-Melbourne is the world's most travelled air route, even above NY-DC, NY-Boston, San Francisco-LA which I find hard to believe, but given that their is only one airport for each city along the Australia route, I could see how there could be more flights between the two airports than any other two airports given that there are several airports for each of the US Metro areas.
2) Winter slow down. I was surprised how much was shut down along the Great Ocean Road, but apparently no one visits it during the winter (which is quite mild as day time highs were around 70 degrees.)
3) Employment schemes. The Great Ocean Road was built after WWII to employ all of the Australia serivcemen returning home in a massive employment scheme. It doesn't really connect anything and just sort of trails off at the end unlike the Pacific Coast Highway in California.
4) Driving on the left hand side of the road. Its a weird thing to do for the first time and as a result I kept turning on the windsheild wippers instead of my turn signal since the two levers are reversed.
5) I ate Kangaroo for dinner today. It was actually quite good, along the lines of venison. Its quite strange, however, that Australian's would eat and even farm their National Animals. (They do the same with the Emu which is their second, lesser-known National Animal.)
The part of the 'Great Ocean Road' that I drove down today was along the part of Australia's Southern Coast (which seems like a strange concept, but yes they actually have coasts for each cardinal direction) know for surfing. As such, I found a place to rent a surfboard and wetsuit, making Australia the fourth country I've surfed in. Unfortunately, however, the break was probably the worst along the coast, but happened to be the only place where I could walk from a rental shop to the water that was open. Further along the coast, I drove by a golf course that had Kangaroos in the wild hoping around it while people played golf.
I eventually made it to a town called Lorne where I spent the night and went on a short hike to a waterfall there.
Observations:
1) A bunch of people told me that Sydney-Melbourne is the world's most travelled air route, even above NY-DC, NY-Boston, San Francisco-LA which I find hard to believe, but given that their is only one airport for each city along the Australia route, I could see how there could be more flights between the two airports than any other two airports given that there are several airports for each of the US Metro areas.
2) Winter slow down. I was surprised how much was shut down along the Great Ocean Road, but apparently no one visits it during the winter (which is quite mild as day time highs were around 70 degrees.)
3) Employment schemes. The Great Ocean Road was built after WWII to employ all of the Australia serivcemen returning home in a massive employment scheme. It doesn't really connect anything and just sort of trails off at the end unlike the Pacific Coast Highway in California.
4) Driving on the left hand side of the road. Its a weird thing to do for the first time and as a result I kept turning on the windsheild wippers instead of my turn signal since the two levers are reversed.
5) I ate Kangaroo for dinner today. It was actually quite good, along the lines of venison. Its quite strange, however, that Australian's would eat and even farm their National Animals. (They do the same with the Emu which is their second, lesser-known National Animal.)
posted by Traveling Brian at 3:56 PM
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