The Great Ocean Road Part 2

Part 1

The weather improved each and every day of our road trip. It started out miserable and cold in Melbourne but as we hit the road the sun was out and while it wasn't warm it also wasn't cold.

Since we had 2 days to do this drive we took our time and got a late start from Melbourne after visiting the Gaol in the morning. Unfortunately we didn't really plan this trip out AT ALL and it was all very go with the flow and see what happens. Because we had no plan whatsoever we ended up missing out on 2 things that we really wanted to do because they closed at 5pm and we didn't make it to them until after 6pm. The first thing we missed out on was the Cape Otway Lighthouse which is apparently haunted (who doesn't like a good haunted lighthouse!) and has been running since 1848. The lighthouse was actually way up there on my list of things to see on the road trip so even though we missed the opening hours we took a little drive down the road towards it in hopes that we could catch a glimpse from afar. And while we caught nary a glimpse of any lighthouse we did make a very happy discovery that we otherwise would have missed if we hadn't turned down the road to the lighthouse.

Koalas!

Coolest wildlife I have ever encountered in the wild! Better than the roos in my opinion. They're very lethargic and slow moving (maybe this is why I liked them so much, the roos are always on the move and impossible to photograph!). Once we saw one they were incredibly easy to spot and we saw hundreds up in the gum trees. Completely amazing and made the whole trip worth it.

Next up we catch the 12 apostles just before the sun sets...

Kangaroo in the Wild

Since I finally figured out how to upload videos properly on here I thought you all might enjoy the kangaroo.

I also have, because I know you want to see, a koala in the wild to show you soon!

T-minus 12 Days until we go home!

Danger on the Hawkesbury

Oh Australia, how charming and harmless you seem from afar with you sparkling beautiful beaches, gloriously sunny weather and plethora of outdoor activities. I did not know that once I got here I would constantly be bombarded with crap weather and DANGEROUS ANIMALS. Seriously, how do they disguise this fact from us so well?

Ok, the crap weather is just this year...or so they say, though they could be lying I would never know. Although it is nice and officially summer weather now so I'll quit whining about the constant rain, but seriously, I'm from Oregon and it's been a lot of rain EVEN FOR ME.

Moving on.

I've told you all about the dangerous animals in Queensland, but there are dangerous animals here in NSW (that's New South Whales for all of you non-Aussies, the state in which Sydney is located) as well. First up we have the funnel web spider, which is one of the most venomous spiders in the world. Awesome. Luckily I have never had the misfortune of running into one of these guys, but just the knowledge that they're here is enough for me.

Also here in Sydney are sharks, now of course I know you're all thinking, well duh of course there are sharks there, you're on the ocean. But did you know, that there are more shark attacks IN THE HARBOUR than on the beaches. Crazy shit, no? And did you also know that there are SHARKS IN THE RIVER.

Seriously, you can't even go houseboating without fear of BEING EATEN BY A SHARK.

Oh Australia.

So, anyway, the point of this post is...we went houseboating on the Hawkesbury River and luckily it was nice and CLOUDY, again because the weather in Sydney is so awesome, so it wasn't even warm enough to get in the river but once. Which means, I did not get eaten by a shark IN A RIVER.

Another little interesting tidbit about Australian wildlife, apparently there are jellyfish in the river as well. What? Jellyfish in the river? Yes, jellyfish in the river. Now, luckily these little suckers are not venomous and don't even have stingers, but holy hell they're big!

This is our boat.

Now, my pictures I warn you are going to portray the weather as deceptively sunny. This was purposeful, mostly because I was not the photographer the majority of the time, and Dom only whipped it out when the weather was nice.

The camera, he only whipped out the camera when the weather was nice! Dirty minds. Oh, was that just me when I read back the sentence?

Anyway.

I am a fabulous boat driver.

See the jellys?

Pretty sunset.

Waterfall.

Now, about the waterfall. We decided to climb it. I don't know why we decided to climb it, but we decided to climb it.

But we successfully made it to the top! And my thighs hurt for a full week afterward. Fantastic workout.

T-minus 14 Days, that's just 2 weeks to home!

The Rest of It

It's Boxing Day here in Oz, (that's the day after Christmas for all the Americans out there) and while Dom watches the Dallas Cowboys I thought I would finish up our Uluru/Alice Springs recap so that I can delve into the Jamaica trip from more than a month ago and our weekend trip houseboating on the Hawkesbury River and also tell you about the Opera House...all before we leave tomorrow for Melbourne (I can almost guarantee that's not going to happen, but it's a nice thought). So, here we go...

Ayres Rock

The Olgas

The Road Trip

Alice Springs

First up, just as we were heading out of Alice Springs we saw a kangaroo! Yes we've seen kangaroos before but never quite as close as this! And after seeing all of the other wild animals on our road trip and not a single kangaroo...we really needed to see a kangaroo to make the trip complete. We even managed to capture the moment on video. Unfortunately Blogger does not want to load my video...so this picture where the kangaroo is barely visible will have to suffice. She's up at the top of the pic between the rocks, can you see her?

The road trip back was much less exciting as we took the shorter route and managed to do the whole thing in just over 4 hours. Here are the highlights:

Emus at a petrol station.

A giant frilled lizard and echidna...at the same petrol station. Because why WOULDN'T there be a giant frilled lizard and echidna at a petrol station.

A salt lake.

The Uluru lookalike.

More camels.

To be fair it was probably the same herd as we saw on the trip out, not more camels, just the same camels again.

This is a dingo. It's a crap picture I know, but I promise in the very middle of the picture is a dingo.

And here's the car after the roadtrip, not nearly as many bugs as we thought there should be.

Our last night in Uluru we decided to do the "Sounds of Silence" dinner, remember when we went to Port Douglas and did the "Flames of the Forest" dinner? Well, this was essentially the same thing. Dinner under the stars while watching the sun set behind Uluru. Instead of an aboriginal telling a bedtime story this time it was the most Australian guy I've ever seen playing a digeridoo.

Have you ever seen anyone look more quintessentially Australian than this guy?

Champers at sunset.

Totally worth it if you're ever in Uluru, they give you all sorts of weird Australian fare like kangaroo and crocodile and give you too much alcohol. Awesome.

As we got ready to head off the next morning we took one last trip out to Uluru before we headed back to the airport.

A closeup of the walk you can do up the side of Uluru.

And our final look. Bye bye Uluru.

Through the Middle

Part 1 - Ayres Rock

Part 2 - The Olgas

After our early morning hike we hit the road. If you google directions from Uluru to Alice Springs you can see that it's a mere 460 km away, which if you drive fast is about a 5 hour drive. BUT, while googling Dom discovered there is ANOTHER way to Alice Springs that involves several hundred kms of unsealed (in the US we just call them DIRT) roads, making the trek 640 kms and approx 8 hours. So you just know we took the long way.

This is our car at the beginning of the journey, relatively bug free.

I just love Australian signage. This was definitely one of my favorites for 2 reasons. First, this sign is in the middle of nowhere, if you'd made it this far WITHOUT driving on the left that would be some feat. The second is of course that fact that it specifies "in Australia", as though you could be anywhere else but Australia....there's not another country for hundreds of miles...

Anyway.

Before we even made it to the dirt road we stumbled upon our first of many wild animals.

Wild Camels!

I had no idea there were wild camels in Australia! They were just crossing the road...hanging out. Very cool.

The red road is the long road. And our chosen route through the Red Center.

The only thing for miles and miles were these tiny little "towns" that consisted of exactly what you see here. Toilets, showers, possibly a restaurant, campsites...and emus. Ha!

Little sidenote here...from the time we stepped into our car we were plagued by suicidal birds. That's right I said Suicidal Birds. Have you ever plagued Angry Birds before:

source

That's what we had on our hands....Angry Birds. They would be sitting along the side of the road or in the road, NEVER IN THE TREES and as soon as the car was anywhere near them REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY ACTUALLY NEEDED TO MOVE OR NOT they would dive headfirst TOWARDS THE CAR! It was ridiculous. Sometimes they would fly out of the way and then immediately turn around to FLY BACK INTO THE CAR. At first I was completely traumatised after we'd hit one or two, BUT THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO! I don't know how many we hit, but after the first 3 you just sort of accepted it. Poor little suicidal birds.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love bones? If this life of mine had turned out differently I would be a forensic anthropologist. Whoever decided to put skulls on a stick in the middle of nowhere is awesome.

And then...our second wild animals...Wild Horses!

We love our wide angle lens...and our timer. Ha.

And more wild animals...a skink! At least I think it's a skink, I saw a sign somewhere about skinks back in Uluru and since we saw about 10 of these along our drive I decided they must be skinks.

And even though it's called Red Centre Way and the middle of Australia is called The Red Center, this has been the wettest year in 70 years and the middle of Australia was decidedly...unred. Other than the unsealed road which you can see from the piccies is quite clearly red the vegetation was green and downright lush! Not exactly how I was imagining it to look.

And then just as we were about to hit Alice Springs after a LONG day of driving, we encountered this:

As I said it's been a really wet year! But not to be deterred by a river in the road Dom made the executive decision to ford the river...I was not so sure about this decision but since the only other road going to Alice Springs was a good 2 hours behind us we went for it. Obviously we survived the fording of the river, but again, not what you'd expect to see in the middle of Australia!

Next we finally make it to Alice Springs...

The Time I Touched a Wallaby

A few months ago because we had nothing better to do we decided to go to the zoo. Ok and also because we'd seen on the news that a baby pygmy hippo had just been born and he looked sooo cute!

The Taronga Zoo here in Sydney is pretty tiny but pretty great.

First, you take a ferry there, which in and of itself makes it unique and starts the experience of right.

Second, you're very up close and personal with the animals, much like I was trying to describe at the Croc farm, if you really wanted to you could stick your hand in and touch the majority of the animals. Granted the big scary cats are behind glass, but everything else is right there next to you again with just signs that tell you if you stick your hand in and a goat bites you, it's your fault, you were warned.

There is also a really great view of the city from the zoo, specifically the giraffes have a primo piece of real estate.

See that? They have a view of the bridge!

They also, have a special "walkabout" section where they let you walk about with the animals...specifically Australian animals, like koalas, wallabys and kangaroos. It's very weird and very cool, I'm not sure how the animals don't escape, since all they have to keep them in is two sets of doors, one of which will not open until the other closes....but still!

That's me petting a wallaby.

Kangaroos just hangin' out.

Some random dude and his baby and a wallaby. See now if that wallaby decided that baby was threatening and decided to bite the baby, the zoo would totally blame it on the baby...i'm not kidding. They take their signs very seriously, if there's a sign saying something is dangerous, you better be careful!

The baby pygmy hippo! Isn't he cute?

Peacock with the biggest tail I've ever seen!

So, like I said, it's definitely not the biggest best zoo I've ever been to, but it was a unique experience.

And a little sidenote, because what's a good post without mentioning something random, the Oregon Ducks are KILLING UCLA right now and it's awesome. It's 53 - 6 as I'm typing and they're about to score another touchdown. WOW.

Go Ducks!