The One Month Mark!

Hey everybody!

First of all thank you all for following us and your continued support of our blog and Australian endeavors! Today marks one full month of being in this wonderful country. It seems like it has been a shorter and longer period of time all at once, which I guess may mean it feels just about right. We have been able to do so many different things, many of which I had never done before coming to Australia. Let me recap our first month for you all in case you missed anything!

Matt and I arrived here on March 15th and met our host Ralph at the airport, drove us to Mount Eliza where he lives and got us all settled in his house where we have been staying ever since. Him and his wife Tina have been incredible to us, feeding us amazing home-cooked meals, letting us use their extra car, introducing us to new people that have had us over for barbeques, taken us out rock climbing, bowling, as well as countless others things.

We have started playing and coaching football again, which I think I can speak for both Matt and myself by saying that playing football was our first true passion in life, and we are back playing once again. I haven’t had this much fun and excitement playing football in several years and I have been reminded how much I truly love this game. Our teammates and fellow coaches have been awesome, everyone has been willing and able to learn from us and they are all great guys. I am at the point where I feel like I’ve known most of my teammates for years, but in reality its been a month or less. Not to mention we have tons of talent on our roster and other teams in our league better be on point or I promise they will get steamrolled.

We have been able to see a lot of the Greater Melbourne area, including the Mornington Peninsula where we live, all the way down to the beach towns of Sorrento and Portsea near the Bass Strait. up towards the city through St. Kilda, Frankston, Clayton and many others. We’ve been able to explore some of the city going through Federation Square, Flinders St., some of the bar scene up there including the Carlton where one of our teammate’s works the door, and the Chill On Ice lounge (also highly recommended). We’ve been to a Rugby league game at the AAMI Park, walked through Rod Laver Arena and surrounding courts, and have seen the great MCG (Melbourne Cricket Grounds) from the outside (attending a game there in a month). We’ve stayed in a couple different hostels in the city and wandered through Chinatown as well.

We’ve already been on a 5 day road trip where we drove from Melbourne to the Grampians where we climbed up several mountains and took some of the craziest pictures I’ve ever seen (check out our facebooks). Then drove through South Australia to get to Adelaide where we saw our first Koala just above our tent in a tree. After a night out in Adelaide we drove down to Cape Jervis and caught the SeaLink ferry to Kangaroo Island where we saw kangaroos everywhere as well as an emu, a Eucalyptus distillery, Admirals Arch, The Remarkable Rocks, and many other scenic attractions . After that we somehow got to a camping ground after 10pm in Victor Harbor (if want to read that story check out our Kangaroo Island Post here: https://touchdowndownunder.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/kangaroo-island-2/ ). After Kangaroo Island we drove down to Robe and Warrnambool for a day each for some drinking and beach going. Then we finished our trip with a full day adventure down the Great Ocean Road which was absolutely amazing!

We’ve also been able to try as much of the local food and drink as we can get our hands on, we have become particularly partial to the meat pies they make here in the cafe’s, which by my count outnumber the people that live here. We also have tried the notorious Vegemite, which when done properly is actually quite good. The beer here so far has been alright with our favorite being Fat Yak, but we haven’t seemed to find quite as many of the micro brew beers that I’ve heard so much about. Maybe were looking in the wrong places.

We also should be starting work soon because so far all we’ve done is spend and have a great time (not that I’m complaining, but pretty soon we’ll need to fund the fun lol). We have several possibilities to start working which should be figured out by the end of this week. We have gotten a house to move into for the last several months of our trip in Mount Eliza that we are house sitting for a teammate’s mother while she is overseas. This will enable us to live like Australians for much less than if we had to rent somewhere and buy all of our own furniture etc.

All in all our trip has been full of fun and surprises everywhere, we’ve had a wonderful first month and we are looking forward to the next 5 being better than the first one! Coming up soon is hopefully a trip to Tasmania, our first scrimmage, the start of the season and many other adventures! Thanks again for reading and helping us reach over 3400 views!! We hope you all enjoy it and if you have any suggestions please let us know!!

Ben and Matt

The Grampians

Last Thursday morning was the start of our journey across the southeastern part of Australia. That feeling of leaving on a trip before the sun rises always reminds me of vacations I’ve taken in the past with my family. With our bags packed and camping gear ready to go, we ventured off on to the first leg of our trip; The Grampians, a massive national park with mountains, cliffs, waterfalls, and extravagant wildlife. We were traveling during Easter weekend, one of the busiest times of the year for traveling in Australia, children have off from school and long weekend getaways amongst families.  After a little traffic around the city of Melbourne we cruised on through past some small mining towns and reached the Grampians in the early afternoon.

The only problem with the Grampians is that one cannot possibly see everything the area has to offer. So, we checked in at the Brambuck National Park and Cultural Center to figure out where to go in the single day we had there. The park ranger ended up telling us to condense around closer areas in the park so we could hop out and about between hikes and climbs. Luckily, we could drive in between spots with our car.

Ben and I decided to go to MacKenzie’s Falls first. Camera’s out, hiking boots on, and backpacks set, we were ready for our first expedition. This area was absolutely stunning with a massive waterfall and a rainbow shining above, emptying out to a smooth rocky layer down below. After hiking down the falls on the narrow and windy paths, we stepped across the stones over the stream to get a better view. A better view it certainly was when we decided to climb the big boulder in the middle of the water for pictures. Trying to take full advantage of the way, we sprinted up the falls to head to the next hike- Reid’s Lookout & The Balconies.

Reid’s Lookout overlooked the other half of the Grampians. High on top of a ridge, we could see crystal clear for miles and miles. Since we could practically drive our car to the lookout, we decided to hike up to the area called “The Balconies.” The Balconies were these rock formations shaped like an actual balcony. Over looking the same area as Reid’s, this was very narrow and virtually had no boundaries. The adventurous part in myself and Ben decided to get an even better view along the ridge. Adrenaline started kicking in and we embarked on the narrow slope of the rock thousands of feet from the bottom to be at the “edge of the world.” The view of a lifetime, only lasting under a minute was one of the greatest views I have ever seen.

Next off we went to another lookout called “Baroka Lookout.” This view to me was the best view of the park. It was probably one of the highest views we saw and boy could you see everything! We saw dirt roads and paths going down the mountain into the valley. There were little towns perched in between the trees. Simply breathtaking.

As we came down the mountain along the windy roads we came across this field of what we thought were dogs. After turning around and taking a closer look we realized they were Kangaroos and Wallabys. We hopped out of the car and we ended up finding out they were wild, hopping down the mountain to have some food. Although some of them were not necessarily big, we realized they could be dangerous if you got too close.

After quick lunch break with the Joey’s we trekked back up to Reid’s Lookout for the sunset. The view we had was amazing. As it got later in the evening the sun started to set and the sky turned orange and red. A view not many people get to experience. In a matter of minutes the sun was gone behind the mountain and darkness set in. Our day hiking at the Grampians was over, but the night just started.

We went into the town of Halls Gap, a little village settled in the northern part of the Grampians. We came across a restaurant called the Kookaburra Bar & Bistro, a nice little place we could eat at after a long, exhausted day of hiking. Only one thing on the menu caught my eye, Kangaroo Filet. I have only heard good things about how good it tastes, so I ordered just that. It was glazed over in a rich red wine and gravy sauce. It reminded me of a richer type of beef. It was funny how the first Kangaroo I saw in my duration of my time in Australia, I ate one on the same day. After dinner we found a camping ground, set up our tent in the pitch black and got some rest.

We decided to leave the Grampians late morning, but wanted to get one last hike in before the drive to Adelaide. We journeyed to the area called the Pinnacle. We thought the climb would take only about an hour there and back, but boy were we wrong. Wanting to catch sunrise, we practically sprinted up the mountain, through the “Grand Canyon” up in between narrow rocks and up the “stairway to heaven” in what seemed like a never-ending path. It was a total of 2+ kilometers up the steep mountain. But, as the great athletes Ben and I are, we got to the top just in time for sunrise. We had the whole “Pinnacle” to ourselves. It was a great way to end our stay at The Grampians.

-Matt & Ben

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!