Dear blog
It has been 5 days since my last update.......whoops..5 days, really? Well, lets get cracking.
Well we drove into Melbourne with little to no trouble, avoiding the toll roads (will cost you 13 Aussie dollars if you don't) and made it all the way into the ferry depot where we parked and inquired about getting over to Tasmania. That is where the bombshell broke, the ferry was booked solid for about a full week. I just about collapsed when I heard that, but we booked our tickets for the 26, and decided how we were going to kill 7 days. After some discussion we decided to head out of Melbourne and hit the great ocean road, which is when the worst part of our trip started, we had to get out of Melbourne on a different route than when we came in, still avoiding the toll roads, and as we discovered with no good maps of the city. Well with Christian navigating and I driving we attempted this task. If you could have plotted our route out of the city, I am sure you would have believed it to be an excellent impression of a screwed up artist, or maybe it looked like a crushed snail shell, or maybe it is best compared to what you would get if you asked a drunk Irishman to spell his name in Cantonese. Anyway, our eventual course came out so, starting from the ferry depot we went East, then South, then East, then South, followed by a very quick U turn (as I discovered we were heading up an off ramp onto a freeway, heading into one way traffic) North, East, North, West, South, west, North....and somehow we emerged on the North end of Melbourne at the beginning of rush hour, needless to say we were happy to put the city behind us for the next couple of days. Anyway, it wasn't Chris's fault, we had very poor maps to work with, I did miss one sign, and 2 roads we were going to take out of the city turned out to be toll roads, which forced us to make hasty alterations that were incredibly hard to plan for. Anyway driving in Melbourne, as an Australian experience, 0.5/10. Anyway, enough ranting let me hit some highlights. I bought a surf board, used, and it is incredibly fun, the day I bought it I went out and was surfing beside a surf class, and by the end of the day I was better than anyone in that class. The funnist part for me was when me, and 3 other people went to surf a wave, but only me and the instructor caught it. I was able to ride it all the way in, which is an amazing experience, and incredibly fun. I then went surfing in a bit more turmoil water a couple of days later on Johnston beach (on the great ocean road), which had some 5-6 foot waves on it. It was way harder, as you had to paddle 10 minutes to get out to where they were capping, and even then it was a crap shoot. I was able to ride a couple in, but I got cold, the wind picked up and my camera man got chased back to the car due to a rather large amount of flys. After getting pounded by the waves 4 times in a row I called it a day. Today we hit a much tamer beach near Portsmouth, where I went surfing for about an hour, and then lent my board and wet suit to my camera man. He loved it, and I liked watching him get pounded for a change, as it had taken me 2 days to get the sand out of my hair from Johnstons beach, anyway, he wasn't that bad, but he started to understand what I was talking about when it comes to judging waves. Surfing, 10/10 as an Aussie experience, I think Chris even likes it better than his guitar, though he won't admit it, there is nothing like catching a wave and riding it, as he said. I should probably mention the great ocean road. It is a very neat drive, especially when you stop to see the coalla bears, the 12 apostals, and the bay of islands, but honestly I enjoyed the inland scenery just as much. We drove through different types of farmland that reminded me of home all the way up to the Grampian mountains, all the farms in the area remind me of home, I even saw a canola crop. I like this area a lot, much better than the city's at least.. Great ocean road cool scenery, but only 6/10. Oh ya, should mention this also, we came across a cheese factory and milk plant in Warnenbool (apply named Cheese World). There we tested 12 types of cheeses from herb and garlic, to a Chili flavoured, bought milkshake after do to very powerful, and spicy after taste, they make a very wonderful milkshake as well. Anyway, that is all for now, surf safe.
P.S. Still can't upload pictures, will do so later.
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