Gully and Elise's Travel Blog: (Way) Down South

So, we bought the car in Wollongong, and the next day we jumped in and drove it 900 km to Melbourne. It was trial by fire for the new (actually not-so-new) wheels. The Magna made it in one piece, so her initiation into our family is complete.

Our motive for heading down to Melbourne was to reunite with Gully’s long lost friend Scott and his lovely wife Hannah. And, of course, to find fabulous surf beaches for Gully to try out his new board at. We weren’t really planning on doing much sight-seeing, because we figured Melbourne was ‘just another big city’, which is pretty much exactly true. But we did actually manage to see a lot of it, as we drove around collecting camping gear to pack our car with. It is a very nice city, and it was so great to be able to drive around without the fear of imminent death. In fact, it couldn’t be more opposite. The driving is so orderly and polite and as a result, the traffic stoplights are soooo long as everyone waits to take their turn. Kind of makes you wonder what’s better – possible death or waiting 5 minutes at a stoplight? I guess South America’s system wasn’t so bad after all.

We spent 5 nights in Melbourne, gathering camp supplies and hanging out with our hosts, and it was good fun. (On another note: I’ve been told that Canadians use too many superlatives, so I’m trying to get in the habit of using Australian understatement, like saying ‘good fun’ when I really want to say that is was ‘AWESOMELY FANTASTIC!!!’) But now it’s time to hit the open road. We suspect that Australian camping is a little different than both Canadian and Euro-camping, but you’ll have to tune in to next week’s episode to find out……

PS As for finding surf beaches, plans were foiled when we got down here and stuck our toe in the ocean and cried ‘YOWSER! This water is A LITTLE COLD! (aka f#$%ing freezing!!!)’. Now we must search for the perfect wetsuit before the search for the perfect wave can continue.