Monday, December 25, 2017

Day 1 - Great Ocean Road Part 1

We made it! The flight was pretty long, but 4 episodes of Stranger Things Season 2 and much-needed sleep made short work of the 15 hours. I feel like I've gotten pretty good at sleeping for about 15 minutes until one of my body parts falls asleep, adjusting to re-establish blood flow, then falling asleep for another 15 minutes until another part falls asleep, then adjusting, etc. etc. Anyway, the food and service were great. I (Jeremy) think I tried all of the coffee-related drinks on the menu by the time we landed - and they were all pretty good.

After we landed and got our rental car, we set out for the Great Ocean Road, which a scenic drive along the south-eastern part of the country. It's pretty reminscient of Highway 1 on the California coast (other than the whole drive on the left side of the road thing). Bridget got some great views while I tried to compensate for being on the wrong side of the road (and the wrong side of the car) while keeping up with traffic going 80 - 100 kilometers/hr (not miles/hr, mind you). But it wasn't too bad. For anyone else who's experienced this reverse car thing, my tally for the wipers/blinkers mixup is at 4 so far. Anyhoo... the coast is magnificent. Sandy beaches interrupted by steep bluffs beaten by the relentless surf. The road is dotted with pulloffs for tourists (like us) to enjoy yet another of the innumerable scenic views. The weather was overcast when we started driving, but once the sun came out, the water turned that picture-perfect turquoise color.

In case you were curious, the high temperature for today and tomorrow is 70 degrees before heating up to 90-degrees on Wednesday. Looks like that may be a beach/surf morning before heading back to Melbourne! Oh, and another bonus (that I had apparently forgotten) for the southern hemisphere (aside from it not being winter) is that the days are super long! Sunrise around 6am and sunset at almost 9pm! Not quite as long as the days are in Alaska during the summer (we were there a few summers ago) since we aren't that close to the antarctic circle but still pretty nice!

Tomorrow we'll be heading further west on the Great Ocean Road, so there'll some more spectacular pictures coming !

Started the flight with some sparkling wine!

It wouldn't be a blog post without food! Breakfast on the plane

Melbourne sign outside the airport

Waves rolling in


Someone is a risk-taker...

Another view of the water


I spy a Koala!


1 comment:

  1. I'm with you Bridget - This is the best way to see Koalas!

    ReplyDelete