Our First Big Trip!

Over the last week and a half Matt and I have been planning our first big trip,(almost a week long) of our stay here in Australia. After a lot of deliberation between us and a lot of help and input from our amazing hosts Ralph and Tina. We have decided we are going on a camping road- trip through Victoria and South Australia totaling about 1400 miles! This decision was made because we figured we should hit a lot of these things before it cools down a little here because It’ll always be warm up north no matter when we decide to go there.  Over Easter we don’t have practice on Sunday and we haven’t started working yet so we have a full week off to travel.

Sorry this is a bit long and involved with some youtube videos, but I promise they are worth it to watch, so you can see the things were going to experience on our trip!

The Grampians

The plan is for Matt and myself to leave Mount Eliza early on Thursday Morning, sometime around 7 am and head to the Grampians. The Grampians are about 150 miles west of Melbourne so that about a 3- 3 and a half hour drive for us because were about 45 minutes outside of the Central Business District. Ideally we will arrive in the Grampians sometime around 10:30am so that we can maximize our time hiking, climbing, picture taking and roaming about! Hopefully we will see some amazing picturesque views, lots of wild kangaroos, wallaby’s, koalas and if were lucky even wombats. Then once it starts getting dark we will choose a place to camp out for the night in a huge tent that our teammate Richo and his wife Jody are lending us. It is a family sized tent that sleeps 5 so Matt and I should have plenty of room to stretch out. Ralph and Tina are providing us with all sorts of lights, sleeping bags and other camping necessities! Thank you Ralph, Tina, Richo and Jody for helping us make this trip a reality!!

Adelaide

Then in the morning Matt and I will pack everything up and head off to Adelaide which is about 400 miles away and should take somewhere between 6 and 7 hours to get there. Adelaide is the Capitol city of South Australia, and from all accounts is beautiful and has lots of parks, cafes and bars to hangout, eat in and see. We are camping just outside the city which has buses that run into the city every 15 minutes or so so it is very easy to get in and out.

Kangaroo Island

On Saturday morning Matt and I are getting up early to head out to Cape Jervis ( about 90 minutes south of Adelaide) for out 9am Ferry to Kangaroo Island which is a huge island (1700 Square miles) off the south coast of Australia that is almost entirely a massive wildlife reserve. Once on the island Matt and I have got a car rented so we can drive around the island at our leisure and see the specific things we want without having to be stuck in a tour. We can check out some of the caves, beaches, kangaroo, koalas, seals and penguins the island is known for.  We will have the car for 9 hours until 7pm, a half an hour before our ferry leaves to go back to the mainland in Cape Jervis. We will drive back to Adelaide for the night because it is easier for us to stay there near the big highways.

The Great Ocean Road

The last 3 days of our trip will be us meandering down the southern coast of Australia along the Great Ocean Road. We will stop in three different places along the way for the night so that we can stop anywhere we like at our leisure without having to hurry home. This enables us to see as much of the great ocean road as possible. Including the 12 apostles (even though there are only about 7 or 8 still standing lol), Great Otway National Park, Bells Beach, and the Rip Curl Pro Surfing Competition going on while we are in the town of Torquey! We will be visiting/ staying the towns of Robe, Millicent, Warnambool, and Lorne for sure with many others as we go along as well.

We are extremely excited to be going camping for a week all around southern Australia to see a lot of the things that were on our bucket list for our trip even started. And its even better that we are getting to do it within the first 3 weeks here. We will try to blog while we are on the road, but no guarantees for anything substantial. However once we are back, you can expect several incredible posts about our amazing journey!

Portsea & Sorrento

Our journey to the small beach towns of Portsea and Sorrento, in the very far south of Victoria, were nothing what we expected. A beautiful area with one side the bay, the other side the ocean. There was quite a difference. Use to the calm, easy-going waves of the bay where we’ve been in the past, the ocean blew it out of proportion.

Our first day, we stopped at a beach called Portsea Back Beach. We pulled up and happened upon a massive cliff overlooking the ocean. The waves could be heard from in the car. There were barely any beachgoers, just surfers. To our amazement we hopped right down to the beach and met a couple of surfers. They said the waves and current were so powerful they had to stop. Ben and I, of course had to go into the water after hearing that! And powerful there were. We could feel the powerful undertow pulling us right into 12-14 foot waves.

We decided to go for lunch into the town of Sorrento. It was like a beach town out of a movie. Open-air shops, restaurants, and cafes. After spending an hour eating and walking around we of course were hungry for more beach action. We decided to go check out another beach right down the street called Sorrento Ocean Beach. Now this beach was very different. The massive waves were still there, but it had many rock/cliff formations where everyone could walk on. As the tide rolled out we walk along the rocks in the shallow water. Something I have never experienced before.

With all this excitement, what more could you do then to go back again the next day. And we did just that.

We ended up spending more time exploring the rock formations around Sorrento Ocean Beach for the whole day. We ended up eating at an unbelievably beautiful restaurant overlooking the ocean from atop the cliff. A view so amazing we didn’t want to leave.

Every beach we have been to has been spectacular. Just when we think a beach cannot be topped, it does. The beaches of Victoria, Australia are simply breathtaking.

-Matt & Ben

Melbourne Night & Day

Ben and I decided this past Friday night to go into the city of Melbourne and experience all the hype we’ve heard through word of mouth from everyone around here. We booked a room at this travelers “backpackers” establishment which we never have done before. It was very cheap and affordable and convenient to the downtown area of the city. A simple Google Maps input into our phones and the location came up, but we of course could not find the place. After walking around the block a few times we noticed saw the sign “Flinders Street Backpackers” located halfway down this side alley. Being cautious and aware of our surroundings we entered the backpackers, we walked pass a very loud bar all the way up to the 3rd floor where the lobby was. People were making food, playing pool, and just having a good time at the lobby. Still trying to take everything in we got up to our room, or should I say “Cell.” This room had two beds literally jammed next to each other and that was it. There are cars a lot bigger than this room we stayed in.

We ended up going to this beautiful bar/club one of our teammates works at called The Carlton. The first two floors had real nice lounges and the top two floors had tropical beach themes, along with a rooftop back called The Palmz. Any place really with palm trees seems warm to me.

The next morning we decided to walk around a different part of the city. We walked around the Docklands and the Yarra River, which flows just south of the Central Business District. The whole area around the water was pristine. Cafe’s overlooking the beautiful skyline for the city really set in how nice an area this is. We walked a little further down the road called “Batman Ave.” and ended up at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (the MCG), a 100,000 seat stadium used for Cricket, Rugby, and Aussie Rules Football. We also walked by the Rod Laver Arena, where they house the Australian Open for Tennis. To our amazement we just walked right through most of the practice courts with no trouble at all.