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Published: April 30th 2011
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Blog Three - Melbourne and The Great Ocean Road on a Harley
G'day mates! First, Melbourne....besides everyone in black; from boots, to tights, to skirts, to leather jackets, and even black hair - Melbourne is a city filled with vibrant energy!-- Upon checking into our hotel, we found ourselves in the midst of the Melbourne comedy festival. We quickly booked a show and laughed our way through our first night. While walking, at least 5 hours a day, we encountered....
a *bustling city atmosphere *culture: we walked to Paliament, Federation Square, theatres, and churches, The Victorian Market (the biggest of its kind in the southern hemisphere), The Yarra River District, and past parades for Anzac Day (similar to our Veteran's Day, only much more), --the streets of the city packed with people, decorated veterans from every war back to wwI, an intense patriotic pride permiated the city. *an abundance of gardens (we walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens),
*buildings (where the historic Victorian are intermingled with the modern new such as the Cricket goedesic dome stadium-we walked up to the sport center filled with different stadiums), *restaurants (of every ethnic variety -we ate delicious Thai, spicy Indian, and scrumptious Greek
cuisine), coffee shops (where we've broken away from Starbucks and have enjoyed a "flatwhite"), *stores (everything is so expensive here: our three pastries were $20 - M & M's total daily allowance in Asia), (Andrew (Durant) can you figure how much we're spending for a gallon of gas if it's $1.50 perliter?), *and trains, trams, and traffic (where there are no billboards except..."a third drink - you bloody idiot", "driving slow won't kill you" and "droopy eyes?-take a 15 minute power nap" (you'd love that, Al!) Believe it or not - we loved it all! (except the prices)
Next, The Great Ocean Road, on a Harley." Moms, we're back safe." We headed out of Melbourne and down to the Great Ocean Road riding on the left side of the road. It took constant vigilence--stay left;look right--with four eyes and a Junevoice in my ear. Intense, but fun. The sun came out the first afternoon and stayed with us the rest of the time. The huge Rip Curl contest had just ended two days before we arrived. That turned out to be a very good thing--crowds and traffic had disappated and we were able to see the contest location. The leader
board was still up and we could view the break from above (swell had dropped considerably, but we could see the potential). The Ocean Road is similar to northern (and in some parts, Central California). Winding, hairpin turns, sheer cliffs and dense vegetation highlighted the first two days of our ride. The beaches are expansive and pristine, the views (including those of the twelve apostles) spectacular! We drove through quaint little towns and fishing villiages, reminiscent of Cambria or Mendicino. On the third day we headed north into the Grampian Mountains and encountered Koalas, Emus, Kangaroos, and Cockatoos. As we sat on the back porch of our motel room, the kangaroos came bounding by while flocks of cockatoos landed in the trees overhead, soon departing with a laughter-like screeching as they took flight. Our final full day took us through the long lonely roads of the bush, ranches, and wineries of the central Victoria countryside. Sometimes we'd ride for long stretches without seeing any other vehicles. A ride long remembered!
This ends phase three of our travels. Tomorrow, we pick up the campervan and begin slowing down the pace a bit (maybe; maybe not). We'll keep you posted as we
continue our journey west toward Adelaide and the wine country.
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