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!
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