Melbourne-2

Luckily Dennis had a quiet week at university so we were able to go to Emily's parents' beachhouse at Anglesea (2hours south-west of Melbourne)for a couple of days. It was really great!

We arrived on thursday-afternoon and after doing some grocery-shopping we installed ourselves in front of the fireplace to get warm. All days were quite chilly (7-10 degrees) and we had some sun and rain, almost Dutch autumn-weather. Dennis went for a surf in the afternoon, I went along to monitor his skills but there were almost no waves to catch. So I just enjoyed the fresh air on the beach and the sundown. That evening we cooked, ate, and had some beers in front of the fireplace. We had a great discussion during dinner about Damien Hirst's artwork (2 cows in the series "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living") I had seen in Tokyo.

The next morning we took off for driving along the "Great Ocean Road", a coastal (high)way that leads all the way to Adelaide (I think). Amazing views and cliffs along the way. We spent most of the day in the car (since distances are amazing here in Australia) be we hopped out of the car for some scenic spots and a walk or sight here & there.

So for instance we visited a rainforrest (a small piece of it, left over in one of the valleys along the coast). They had made a tree-top walk, with steel bridges, so you'd get a better view of the forrest-canopy. Turns out that even in the relatively moderate climate-zones trees can grow fast and huge; some of the trees grow 1m/year for the first 50years of their live. And eventhough they grow so fast, their wood is excellent: strong and hard. Some of the trees in along the tree-top walk were some 35m high, but they can grow over 100m tall!

Our destination for the day was the 'Twelve Apostles', a coastal rockformation (picture above). We arrived there (after a long but very enjoyable drive trough cultivated lands a bit further from the coast) very late in the afternoon with the sun almost setting- it was an absolutely stunning and spectacular view! It was just the perfect moment, with the clouds opening up for some sunshine, a sturdy breeze from the ocean, not to many tourists and a nice wavy ocean!

Very close to 'the Twelve Apostles" there is quite a dramatic coastline with blow-holes, caves, secluded beaches and cliffs. We wandered around a bit and ran into a solitary black kangaroo... beautiful, but to shy for me to take a picture in time.

We drove back from the Twelve Apostles during the evening and night. Along the way we had a very nice dinner in a pub overlooking the moonlit quiet ocean. What a great day.

Since we arrived home quite late we took it easy the next morning. Dennis went for a surf after breakfast (but still not much surf at Anglesea) and the rest of us cleaned up the house. Before driving to Melbourne we dropped by the Anglesea Golfcourse to check out the Kangaroos. You can see them in the picture at the picasa site:

pictures of beachhouse-weekend

This week I will be in Melbourne, watching two alp-stages of the Tour de France (yes!) and spending my time reading and visiting some museums. Friday-evening we will all go watch a game of Australian Football ("foottie"). It is a mix of Rugby and Soccer. It is the coolest game (after basketball) that I know. It really cool and everybody is into it here- seems to be one of the biggest sports in Australia, if not THE biggest. We watched a game of Dennis' team in a nearby pub (while enjoying another kangaroo-steak) and I enjoyed it so much that we will go and watch Hawthorn Hawks (Dennis' favorite team, 3rd in the standings) against Geelong Cats (1st in standings) on friday... They've promised me it will be great. Looking forward to that!

pictures of Melbourne-time at picasa

That's all for now people. Guess next time I will be writing to you from the west-coast. Take care,

Bas.