Road Trips, Hippies, and Vegemite

I was just sitting in my room talking to some American friends last Friday and we randomly decided to go on a little road trip.  Everybody raced to their rooms to pack up and 15 minutes later we met downstairs and loaded up the wagon.  Talk about short notice.  So Ciara, Jimmy, Adam and I set off for Torquay, almost two hours away with the traffic.  There we bought groceries and gas and started down the Great Ocean Road.

I finally got to see the legendary Bells Beach, one of the best surf spots in the world and home of the epic Rip Curl surfing contest (which is coming up in three weeks!).  The surf wasn't too hot, so I took a few pictures and kept driving, looking for a spot to camp for the night.  We made it down to Lorne and found a random dirt road outside of town.  About 3 k's down the road there was a clearing where we parked the car, managed to start a fire with wet wood and a few pages of my Australia road atlas (pages from the northern territory, which I don't plan on visiting), and heated up the leftover stir-fry I had cooked the day before.

The rain started a little before we got to the campsite and was on and off all night.  I didn't have a tarp for my tent, plus it was freezing outside, so we ended up with all four of us sleeping in the back of the wagon.  I was comfortable and slept like a baby in my warm sleeping bag, but my friends were pretty uncomfortable and didn't sleep too well that night.

We got up and ate a couple pbj's for breakfast, cleaned up and drove to the nearby Erskine falls for a little hike.  Not content to stand on the viewing platform, we jumped down and climbed across the slippery rocks to stand beneath the 38-meter fall.  I brushed my teeth in the waterfall to get ready for the day.

We then set off down the ravine through the gorgeous forest, following the stream past stands of huge fern trees and through dense dark rainforest.  Several hundred meters down the ravine from the waterfall, there were two people sitting up in a cleft in the rocks above the path.  They beckoned for us to climb up there, so we went.  It turned out to be an Israeli guy and his Australian girlfriend who had decided the ravine would be a good place to trip... soooo they had brought along their drugs and were peacefully enjoying the serenity of the forest.  The guy, forgetting our names no matter how many times we introduced ourselves, resorted to calling us "geniuses".  They were pretty cool hippies, and gave Adam and Jimmy some stickers with Indian symbols.  They also drew us a picture.  Awesome.

We hiked different trails throughout the day, finding some stunning views of waterfalls, small canyons, and of course, the ocean.  That night I slept comfortably in a sleeping back inside my tiny tent while Ciara, Jimmy, and Adam piled in the back of the car for another fitful night's rest.  The next day we headed back to Melbourne.

Classes started for me on Tuesday, which meant sitting in lectures from 9 AM until 1.  My tutorials and workshops were spread out over Wednesday and Thursday, which meant I had a little time to get my reading done between classes.  I'm really excited to have the professors I do, because they are all excellent.

I showed my Aussie mates the movie "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure", which no one had seen before.  We've been hanging out, cooking, playing soccer, basketball, and pool, and just having a good time.  Tim has given everybody a nickname, so there are the two girls: Faker (from Singapore) and Stoner (she doesn't smoke); and the guys:  Lash the Gash, Doc, Smithstress, McIvor, Abhi, and of course, Danger (that's me.  Thanks to Tim the Smithstress, a lot of people don't even know me by my real name).  We all live in Roberts hall, and so all it requires is a short walk to either McIvor's room, the common room, or the kitchen to locate everybody else.

I already have a lot of reading and writing to do for my classes, so today is a bit of a study day, followed by a trip into the city tonight.  This morning Amy (Stoner) introduced me to the classic Aussie breakfast of vegemite spread on toast, which was... salty.  I'm not quite used to vegemite yet, but the Aussies love it and Amy figures that by the time the end of the semester comes, I'll want it all the time.  I guess we'll see!