We made our first Australian road trip last weekend! We drove down to Melbourne from Sydney. We decided to take the coastal route which takes about 12 hours! Sounds like fun, huh!! :) Actually, we had a great time and learned alot about Australia! The pictures below are all from stops we made on the way.
Pelicans for Glenis! This was taken at our first stop - a town called Bateman's Bay. This is only a few hours outside of Sydney - many Sydneysiders go there for weekend holidays. It was a very neat little town with a beautiful bay area. One thing - Australia is a lot like Oklahoma in the sense that the names are not very easy to pronounce. We have lots of Indian names, Australians have lots of Aboriginal names. We entertained ourselves by trying to read the signs as we passed them. It wasn't easy!!! Cristin wrote down a few that were particularly interesting: Ulladulla, Wandandian, Wallagaragh, Mallacoota, Bermagui, Croajinglong, Koo Wee Rup, and Dandenong. I still don't know how to pronounce some of them!
One of our big stops was at the Bega cheese factory in Bega (go figure!). We toured the factory and then, at the end, we tasted all the cheeses. The milk comes from hundreds of surrounding dairy farms. The Bega brand is one of the most recognizable cheese brands in Sydney.
Kangaroos on the golf course! This was just off the highway in a small town. It reminds me of Caddy Shack. We are such tourists... we had to stop and take pictures! :)
Here's Cristin at the Killer Whale museum in Eden. The story behind this museum is that a killer whale named Tom, helped the local whaling industry in the early 1900's. Tom would herd other species of whales to the whalers so they could kill them and give Tom the lips and tongues (gross). He often slapped his tail on the water to wake up the whalers. The whalers would jump in their boats and Tom would lead them to the whale. It is a pretty interesting little story, but the town is built around the (now terminated) whaling industry.
When we were leaving we asked a lady working there how far it was to Lake's Entrance (the town where we were staying the night). She told us about 3 hours. But, she was very concerned that we get through the mountains before dusk. This was so we could get to our destination before the kangaroos and wombats would be out. So its sort of dangerous to be driving through these country towns around sunset. We thought this was interesting her advice was not to watch out for kangaroos and wombats but to get off the road because of kangaroos and wombats!
This picture is for J.C. back home. I think his all time favorite movie is "The Man from Snowy River." We made it to our hostel in Lake's Entrance just after dark. The trip felt like we were driving down Route 66. We didn't need a map, we just followed the same road as it lead us through every small town between Sydney and Melbourne.
The next morning we started our trip again to finally reach Melbourne. We made a couple of little stops along the way, but were pretty anxious to get into the city. But, the Australian countryside is very pretty and the drive along the coast was very relaxing! We highly recommend it for anyone who has the time!
A paddock outside the community.....They told us that we may be the only white people to ever set foot on that land.
Same paddock....very rocky with lots of scrub bush
View of Alice Springs from Anzac Hill
The community had several wild donkeys that just hung out on the outskirts of the town. The donkeys were there for two reasons 1) the aboriginals never kill an animal that they don't eat and 2) the missionaries taught them that Jesus rode donkeys. Therefore, they consider them sacred. They also point out that the donkey has a cross on its back.
Everyday at 3 o'clock about 20 guys met out at the football oval for training. This was definitely their favorite part of the day. These guys eat, breathe and sleep Aussie Rules Football. One of the first questions they asked us was "which team do you barrack (support) for?" So as foreigners we usually said a different team each time they asked.
They let us kick the ball around with them before they started the real training. The ball is passed by either a kick ( what we call a punt) or a hand punch (like an underhand volleyball serve), but never thrown. I would have to say that the time at the football oval was probably my favorite part of the trip also. It was good to see what really gets them going. 
I thought this picture was funny. You think these two guys are just spectators, but they are the coaches. They didn't ever say a word to the guys while they were training.
This is the community bus used to get the team into town for their games. As you can see they are the Canteen Creek Blues. They said that this 22 seat bus usually takes about 50 people to the game each week! Not to mention that they travel down 180km (108 miles) of rough, dusty gravel road. One window was missing and many of the seats were torn. The book on the dash is an old bible.
From left to right - Martin from Sweden, Joel Mick (eldest son of eldest son or soon to be president of community and also a "love song" fan, especially Michael Bolton and Celine Dion), Bill, Kenneth, Janet from China
While the guys were making the hives, the ladies were doing paintings. The paintings are going to be used in developing a logo for the honey. We will most likely use a name from their native language.
The kids are going to paint some of the hives.
This is my favorite picture. The kids liked it when I took their picture and then showed it to them.
Graham (vice president of community), Janet (sydney uni student), Kathy (community assistant and our host). This is the group making our way into the bush - looking for the bees.
Martin, Sydney Uni student from Sweden, is listening to the bees inside the tree.
The stingless bees are quite small!! Apparently, there are several species of stingless bees in Australia and we happen to be working with the smallest kind. They are about the size of an ant. This is one reason why this honey is going to bee so expensive!!!
Adrian Mick (community president b/c he's the eldest son of the community founder) swinging away at the gum tree. Once we have enough hives started we will not have to chop into the trees, but can just split the boxed hives once per year to grow the business.
This is just a brief glance of what the Great Ocean Road looks like. Imagine that times 4 hours! It was VERY windy - we never knew what to expect around the next turn! Tuesday we spent most of the day driving to the West of Melbourne on the Great Ocean Road. It is a definite must if you are visiting Melbourne! 
