a long little drive

woo and i took off for 2 weeks in early january and went driving driving down the east coast of australia in woo's trusty steed of a car, ANF, all along the victorian coast in the south, along the great ocean road, until we reached port fairy with its gorgeous 200 year old huts and churches from a time when irish people were very short and they came to australia to kill some whales ... and then we turned inland. ned kelly country. gold rush country now turned grazing land. a whole driving circuit. a. road. trip.

we drove. a lot. and tented it. and caravan parked it. and beached it. and melbourned it. and just watched it all go by really. and it was beautiful.

• nothing feeling better than leaving sydney. leaving sydney. leaving. sydney.
• crashing in bermagui where the lighthouses start and little kids with ipods for ears sing unaccompanied for their indian supper at the cafe on the corner
• driving out of jindabyne and down and through the snowy mountains national park. woo driving hours along tedious sloooow pulverous unpaved ... red and dusty ... national park driving track ... eventually emerging from the nsw bush & into victoria and the idyllic town of suggan buggan where everywhere you look is postcard heaven
• tentless and grumpy and sleeping in front of ANF and under stars at lakes entrance
• hitting 90 mile beach ... one of the longest stretches of white white beach in the world ... and being bitten bitten bit by flying biting sand
• crashing in fitzroy with pinky u and y, gorging on home-made humous, lovely laundry and lovelier sleep in a bed
• watching the surfers go out at bells beach
• odd ball karaoke, fun fairs and $6 pasta in warrnambool
• koalas and ancient lighthouses in otway bay ... tales of shipping lanes and straits and shipwrecks and schoolhouses and just australia being so far away from anywhere
• no place for our tent at the inn in lorne
• fresh prawns and chips on the beach in apollo bay
• circling tower hill crater ... having been sent there by eugene von geurard
• a helicopter ride over the 20 million year old 12 apostles ...
• baking our bodies on a victorian beach
• sitting at the top of the rugged mountain ranges of grampians national park with its rolling rocks and purple trees and surveying the wide flat world below
• gold rush diaries and pottery in bendigo
• in the stoop of the tent as night falls, drinking beers cooling in a bag of ice
• a bermuda triangle wander along along along a solitary flat road in search of mysterious aboriginal hand paintings
• an edward hopper-esque backpackers/motel in canberra ... a hard bed in a capital of wide flat streets and wide flat faces.
• all the while looking looking. looking at this beautiful country really

so what can i say? every road looked different. driving through ski parks in a wildflower summer. driving along absolutely spectatcular world-class coastlines - from the start of 90 mile beach to the end of the great ocean road. watching geese fly over salt lakes and the grazing land shimmer in the distance. smashing light and tangy chips and mini flake chocolate bars all over ANF. driving through south gippsland farming country and listening to a 3 hour discussion of women living in the penal colony of australia on am radio. taking the scenic road over the main every time and watching it all fly by.

i think pictures speak better so i shall share some ...