"The traffic is stuck, and you're not moving anywhere"

Bono's words blared from the stereo right as I slowed to a stop behind three other cars and saw the traffic on the other side of the construction zone begin to move toward us down the road, which was narrowed to one lane.  I just started laughing along with Doc, who had chosen the song on my ipod before we turned the corner and saw the construction zone.  I love it when coincidences like that happen. In the two hours since leaving Melbourne, we had only had to stop at one light in Cranbourne. There was no traffic... I guess not many people were keen to leave their beds like we had at 6:45 am when it was literally freezing outside.

It was still dark when we left school and started driving southeast to Wilson's Prom.  The sunrise through the fog was amazing. Faker had never seen frost before - I guess they don't get it too often in Singapore, seeing as it's right by the equator - so I stopped the car when we found a good patch and Doc and I took her frost skiing.  We wound our way from Melbourne down the highway to Cranbourne, between fields and over hills to Leongatha as day broke, and finally arrived at Wilson's Promontory National Park.  My buddy K-Train at school had recommended the Sealer's Cove hike, so the three of us went for it, all 10 kilometres there and 10 more back.  

We had such a blast!  I still hadn't seen a wombat, so I was pretty stoked when about 3 k's into the hike, we found one of the fat little bear-looking things waddling around on one of the saddles between two mountains.  The trail went along the side of one mountain and then around another one, and in every fold of the mountain the air grew humid and the path was muddy.  The sun doesn't hit that side of the mountain in winter, I guess.  It was perfect hiking weather, with a perfectly blue sky and a high temperature around 15 (60 fahrenheit).  After a couple hours we got down to sea level, where a boardwalk ran for FOREVER (like between 2 and 3 ks) over swampy ground, over a couple little billabongs, and to the beach.  When we finally got there, the view was stunning.  The water was a clear green, the beach ran for hundreds of metres either way, and at either end a rocky headland rose up where the bay opened into the ocean.  The northern headland was more like a mountain.  At the south end of the bay the beach became a bunch of boulders sticking out in the water, so we decided to go have our lunch out on a rock in the water.  To get there, we crossed the tidal river where the Billabong we had crossed ran into the bay and then we had to rock-hop our way from the beach out to the boulder with a flat top.  We were aware that the tide was coming in, but went for it anyways.  We called Faker a little mountain goat because whereas Doc and I could easily step from rock to rock in most cases, Faker-Goat had to jump to reach them.

What a view!  From the rock, we could see the mountains all around the bay and the whole beach.  I had brought bread, peanut butter and jam in my backpack, so Doc had his first pbj for lunch (they don't usually eat pbjs in Oz.  It's an American thing).  We just sat on the rock and ate (we were famished and tired after the 10 k hike with only one stop) and talked.  When we decided that we had better head back if we wanted to see the sunset from the other side of the Prom, we discovered that the tide had come in faster than we thought.  The water was a good foot higher than when we had started.  I took my shoes off and rolled my jeans up, but Doc and Faker both made the mistake of getting their shoes wet.  I just tore the soles of my feet up on the sharp rocks.  Faker-Goat and I soaked our jeans up to the knees (Faker up to mid-thigh), even though we rolled them up. So with wet jeans, we hiked 10 ks as fast as we could to beat the sunset.  It still took about 2 1/2 hours.  Faker also made a pretty solid effort of rolling her ankle but hung in there and we got back to the car and drove down to the beach on the west side of the Prom, barely in time to see a gorgeous sunset over the coast and strait.

I don't know what the kangaroo was thinking standing right in the middle of the bridge on the way back, but seeing one of those massive things in your headlights does a good job of waking you up.  I clocked him hopping down the road at pushing 50 km/h, and he looked like he was going easy.  We stopped for KFC when we finally reached a town, then continued the drive back up to school.  When we needed a break, we braved the freezing cold to step out of the car and look at the stars and the milky way for a little bit.  Faker said she doesn't really get to see the milky way or sunsets in singapore, which made me really thankful for being able to see them back home.  Getting up a little after 6, hiking over 20 kilometres, and not having gotten enough sleep sure does wear you out, so I think we all slept really well last night.

Other than that, I was mainly studying and writing papers this week.  One of my Canadian friends had her boyfriend here for a few weeks, and last weekend she had to go on a camping trip so I took James surfing with me.  He said he surfed some back home and could handle cold water, so we headed down to Phillip Island.  James said he hadn't even seen waves that big before.  Express was probably about 6 ft.  He rented a board at Smith's Beach and we went to surf the smallest beachbreak I could find at YCWs, which was still about 3 ft.  I caught some good 3-4 ft. waves on the beachbreak left and then paddled out to a little right point breaking off the rocks at the south end of the bay.  It was a little sketchy sitting about 10 ft. from the dry rocks and waiting for the 4 ft. set waves.  The drop-in was fun - 3 ft. overhead waves ledging onto some shallow rocks - but there wasn't much ride because the wave broke into deep water.  Being out there by myself surfing a shallow break surrounded by deep water still kinda throws me off, so I went back in to where James was waiting on the beach and we went down to Summerlands, the little right point on the beach with the penguins.  I wish I had my quad here because even though that wave was overhead, it is pretty soft except for a couple barrel sections.  James struggled a little bit getting out in the crashing waves and the currents, but I was really glad he had a go and he was stoked just to be there.

I'm down to the final week of class with two final assignments due next Tuesday.  It's hard to believe that I'm going to be leaving so soon.  I've gotta work really hard during the week so I can take advantage of my last bits of free time in Melbourne.  And I'm dying to surf Bells again.