Monday, January 27, 2014

Wilson's Prom, Australia

For those of you that think I just drink and party all day, every day, I have created this post about Wilson's Promontory.  Wilson's Prom, or "the prom" as locals like to call it, is an amazing National Park in the southern most tip of Victoria, Australia.


My pilot, Andrew!

If the ocean hadn't risen to turn Tasmania into an island, the Prom would have extended all the way to Tasmania.

 


The car ride down to the southern coast from Melbourne is approximately 3 hours.  I can’t really tell you what it looks like because I am the worst navigator ever and slept a large portion of the way.  However, we did see a bunch of animals while driving including kangaroos, echidna, cows, birds and sheep. 


Echidna look like porcupines with shorter quills.  I'm pretty sure they can't throw quills like a porcupine, but I didn't get close enough to find out.
And, I did manage to wake up in time to see these beautiful landscapes!

 

Our first stop down The Prom was Squeaky Beach. It was named such because the sand has quartz in it and it squeaks when you walk on it.  (South Africans refer to it as “barking sand”.The sand was super white and powdery and created the perfect bed for a nap.  You had to walk through a rainforest to get there and the beach was lined with giant boulders which helped shield the beach from the wind.


  


 


We decided to just roll the dice for lodging and googled hostels once we arrived.  When we rolled up to the hostel, we were told that it was full.  But that he would give us a 2 bedroom apartment for the same rate.  The apartment was clean and no one came to occupy the second room so we had it all to ourselves!  The hostel looked similar to a cranberry colored Bates Hotel, so we were very glad to have gotten to stay in the vacation apartments next door.

We arrived around 7:30 and decided to go to the local pub to watch the Australian Open tennis matches.  Poor Andrew was forced into 3 days of live tennis and now I was forcing him into tennis on TV.  This pub, however, was actually a hotel bar that also doubled as a senior center.  Seriously!  They had seniors' menu prices (which we were not eligible to elect) and you had to go up to the window and order your food despite there being waitresses all around.  There was no salt in any of the meals, clearly catering to a sodium-conscious crowd and there was some kind of PTA meeting happening at the table behind us.  It was all very odd, but surprisingly our food was actually really good.

The next morning, Andrew packed us a lunch (he will make someone an amazing house husband some day) and we decided to go climb Mt. Oberon.  Mt. Oberon is 557m high.  I realize that its not that high, but its still a mountain and the view was spectacular.  As a reward for our immense bravery and physical aptitude, we were both allotted cookies at the top.  

 

 


Amazing view from the top of a mountain
Andrew testing the Gods
Have a cookie, you earned it!
Our mountain climb only took about 2 hours, so we decided to do a bush walk to supplement our afternoon of hiking and adventure.  The first half of our bush walk was filled with persistent flies, hundreds of kangaroos and emus.  However, the second half was a little tame.  In fact, we didn't see anything for the third quarter of the walk, then we saw this weird snake-lizard hybrid.  It wasn't a snake and hadn't yet mutated into a lizard.  It had a long snake body, but it had 4 legs.  However, those legs didn't have any elbow joints so it couldn't really move fast.

Snake-Lizard Hybrid

Kangaroos in the bush

Emus

Putting the safari scope to work!


THAT was the big thrill of our walk back through the bush?  It was... until a giant snake crept up next to me.  That's right, a 4-5 foot long black snake with a lime green belly was sitting (do they sit?) just to my left. I squeaked a little when I saw it which prompted it to get up in a python pose then quickly turned and slithered away.  Thankfully Andrew saw it as well and he went after it trying to get a better look.  Fortunately, that snake did not have legs and could slither fast because I'm pretty sure he would have attacked Andrew and I would have been an asshole for leaving him dead in the bush.

When we got home, we googled "black snake, green belly, Australia" and nothing came up.  There is a black snake with a yellow belly (Northern Ringneck Snake), but it says those are only 2 feet long and this one was at least 4 feet.  Since I was too busy freaking out like a girl, I did not get a photo of Andrews would-be murderer.

On the way home, we hit up a small coastal city called Mornington.  Pretty amazing!

 




 

This was a pretty rad 2-day trip. We hiked about 15,000 steps (according to my Australian Open pedometer) which is approximately 5 miles. It cost us less than $150 with lodging, gas, a rental car and food.  Boom!


Tuesday, January 21, 2014

7 Reasons why the Australian Open is worth the trip

Despite the heatwave this year, the tournament was pretty amazing.  There were so many upsets in the women's bracket, it made for such good tennis.  The first 4 days of the tournament were between 104-110 degrees.  Then the cool weather came in dropping the temperature to 70-80 degrees.

110 degrees out…watching tennis


1. The tennis is amazing.  
For those of you that aren’t tennis fans, it’s a completely different game live.  The balls are so fast, the grunts are so loud and the crowd surrounding you is so vibrant, it makes basketball look boring.

Serena Williams (1) serving it up….

Tomas Berdych on Margaret Court

 
Venus Williams and Ester Satorova (Berdych's Girlfriend)

2. The knobby-kneed ball boys.  
It must be a prerequisite that adolescent ball boy candidates have giraffe-like knees. Their flailing limbs bolt across the courts retrieving stray balls with an energy that only an 11 year old can sustain.  They receive cheers from the crowd when they retrieve balls mid-air and adorn the goofiest sun-flap (legionnaire) hats and long sleeves with nothing but pride.

Picking up some ball boys!

3. Front row Seats.  
During middle weekend, you can purchase Rod Lever (center court) seats for about $109 each.  However, for $35 you can get ground passes and access to 20 show courts, Margaret Arena and the Heineken Beer Garden.  During the early rounds, big players such as Sharapova, Berdych, The Murray Brothers and Ivanovic all play matches on outside courts.  The outside courts are open seating allowing anyone the opportunity to watch the match from the front row…or in my case, right next to the players box.


Emily, Geoff and Andrew sitting second row for the Berdych match

4. Tennis + Beer + Music = AMAZING!  
The Heineken Beer tent is FREE with ground pass entry or higher.  Although the beers are $8.50 a pop, they are a necessity to beating the 110 degree heat.  Jacobs Creek also has a wine tent and together they liberate the audience of inhibitions and spare change in their wallets.  You can watch the matches or they have live bands and kick ass DJ’s such as Pete Tong that draws crowds of dancers, drinkers and security officials (AKA, the fun police).

 
Jarek and Emily at the Pete Tong show

Human Hashtag
5. The Australian Fanatics.

One of the reasons I love the Australian Open is that the crowd is a little rowdy.  There are organized cheers, the wave, and the occasional solo positive reinforcement heckler.  The Australian Fanatics, however, are the most magnificent of the bunch.  They are a group of twenty-somethings in wigs and face paint cheering on all Aussie players. They have incorporated the players names into popular songs and their sole purpose is to cheer on their Australian brethren and make the crowd laugh.  “Ooooooh Casey, I think I love you, from head to toe…”




6. Fan Participation and gear.  
If you’ve had too much tennis or just need a break from the sun, you can head out into the concourse to test your skills.  There are ball machines with targets to hit, serving booths to read your serve speed, inflatable twister and several souvenir shops where you can buy everything from rackets to over-sized tennis balls for the kiddies.

7. Finding your doubles partner. 
Who needs Tinder when you are surrounded by thousands of other people with similar interests (drinking and tennis)?  In addition to serving up tennis, famous DJ’s and alcohol, it also served up inebriated singles, giant bean bag chairs and large stalled bathrooms…I did not partake in match-making, not that there weren't offers….

Emily almost getting sweaty balls on her neck
Ah! No thanks!

Lovely
Australian Open, I love you and I will be back.