I've always said that travel is a true test of one's character, and the only thing that can disappoint you on a trip is your expectations.
For my first trip to Australia, I had a very few, if any expectations…just that I would meet a handful of friends at the Melbourne show, and the rest would unfold spontaneously.
My visit to the quilt festival in Melbourne was fascinating, because it uncovered expectations I didn't know that I had! There were a few surprises, but I reminded myself of my travel motto about having no expectations, and then I could just enjoy the ride. I was delighted to meet so many of our customers who just walked up, said hello and gave me a hug!
My subsequent road trip down the coast to the Great Ocean Road was one of anticipation, but not expectations, because I truly had no idea what to expect. The first night in a remote beach/fishing town on the coast, I saw the Milky Way in all its glowing spangled glory, for the first time (really) since I was a teenager. I stood out in the pitch black night, staring dumbfounded at the sky, for a very long time.
The next morning I got up at 6 am to go down to the beach at Apollo Bay, to watch the sun come up over the water. Unfortunately there was a heavy cloud cover, but we decided to stay and just see what happened. We were rewarded by a parade of characters who played out their various morning rituals on the beach and in the water.
One of these characters was this scruffy little dog. There was a group of lifeguards who spent about an hour in the water, part of it with their rescue boards. When they went back into the water, sans boards, this dog was racing down the beach from their launch point, trying to catch them when they dropped their boards on the sand. They dove into the waves before he could reach them, and he sat by his master's board and looked forlornly out to the waves, and occasionally whimpered and howled.
Yesterday we spent up in the Beech Forest, and the surrounding pastoral countryside with gorgeous vistas of rolling green hills dotted with sheep and dairy cows. I saw huge red, green and blue lorikeets (looked like African Parrots!) flying among the towering Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus trees growing up to a canopy of 300 feet), and the primeval-looking Tree Ferns that have grown in the rainforest here for 120 million years. When I first opened the car door in the rainforest (to take a photo of a wild lilac bush) the rush of the eucalyptus air was exhilarating! We experienced the Otway skybridge through the canopy of the rainforest, and took a very long hike to a waterfall afterwards.
At sunset the sun was glowing a fierce red, through a *HUGE* plume of mauve/brown smoke billowing up in the distance. The hilltops and treetops all glowed bright red in the final hour of the day, as the light of the sun shot through the smoky haze. We found out this morning that it was a controlled burn – sheesh! If this is a controlled burn I can't even imagine what the real fires are like.
Today we are traveling out to Cape Otway to see koalas and kangaroos, then on to the 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road. Pam tells me there are millions of Roos in the country – so many in fact that they are often killed on the roads like deer are in my home state. I've seen a flock of white cockatiels hunting for food on a green lawn (darn! – didn't get that photo!) and hope to see and photograph more of the gorgeous local birds.
Tomorrow I'll be meeting Leesa Chandler back in Melbourne for dinner, after another sight-seeing day through wine country. Friday I'll be flying to Canberra and Saturday is my presentation at the Jerrabomberra Community Centre for the Queanbeyan Quilters Guild. Hope to see many of you there!
I've posted some images from the Great Ocean Road, on my photo page, and will be adding more in the next few days.
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