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!

I ate you…and I liked it: Part 1

Its funny, I’ve been halfway around the world (literally) and the thing that people are most fascinated with is not the people I’ve met, but what I have eaten.  

Yes, everyone expects amazing breads and pastries from France, killer pasta from Italy and the most amazing Mediterranean dips from Greece.  Amazing culinary creations and dessert treats are nice but most of you were unfazed by my photos of amazing gelato, goopy German fries, Schnitzel, wacky donuts, crepes, amazing fish fillets and impromptu jardon and fromage picnics...

  

Here is what you really want.  Here is a list of some of the crazy stuff I’ve eaten around the globe.  I imagine this list will look adventurous to some and juvenile to anyone who has traveled to Asia….which is next on my itinerary so the next time I do a food post, you’ll get to see fried bugs  and chicken claws galore.

Hey Mr. Chicken…. I ate you.  We braii'd you right up in South Africa and didn't think twice.

 

 Hey Kermit…. I ate you and all of your little frog friends.  And guess what? I shared you with Christine and Marie in Paris…Jeremiah Zetty, you were spared by proximity alone. I would sleep with one eye open, I know how delicious Frog legs are.

 

Oh, and your girlfriend, Miss Piggy, I ate all of her porky little friends too…nomnomnom 

Schnitzel in Frankfurt, A vending machine ham sandwich in France and Curry Wurst in Berlin

Hey Moo Cow…I ate the shit out of you.  Milk, cheese, steaks…you're lucky I spared your tongue in Rome.

  

  

 Ba Ba Blacksheep….I ate tons of lamb….



and most of the time I had lamb paired with some kind of goat cheese.  yum yum yum

 

I've been eating lots of fish.  I've ordered fillets. I have had fish filleted at the table, I've had them in stews and as steaks…but this one….still had eyes and a tail.  It was literally turned inside out.

For those of you deer fans, I've taken it a step further with Kudu, Springboks and Oryx.  I ate a Springboks steak in Swakopmund, Oryx while camping and all three of these fine creatures in Namibia on a kabob.   

 

The middle piece of meat in this kabob was Zebra.  I felt cool eating it at the time…like I was eating exotic game, but felt bad afterward realizing that it was essentially a black and white horse.  I would not eat horse and specifically made it a priority to NOT eat el Equino in Rome, but alas, I ate a zebra….different, but the same.

Ostriches have the most beautiful feathers and in my opinion, the most delicious meat of them all.  Gilly fried one up in some stir fry, I had an ostrich boerewors with Richie and it was my favorite part of the fabulous kabob in Namibia!

Mystery Meat…puppy? I really hope this wasn't dog.  I was in Ethiopia and there were a LOT of stray dogs around.  It had a weird texture so I asked what kind of meat it was and they said "beef".  I asked if it was "Beef from a cow" and he nodded, but I didn't have another spoonful because I didn't entirely believe him 100%.  I really, really hope it was beef from a cow...

Ethiopian Mystery Meat

And finally, while in Australia, I ate a kangaroo.  Hippety Hop, Hippety Hop…while sitting with a vegan, no less.  hee hee hee.

 

I gotta say, kangaroo is not my favorite.  It kind of had the texture of sausage meat and was a bit gritty.  I probably wouldn't order it again, but if that was all there was to eat, I definitely wouldn't starve in lieu of eating it.