Greetings From the Clare Wine Valley!!!

Well I made it. After a mere 2200 kms ( 1376 miles) in less than a week I made it to Clare, my home for the next few months and I'll be working at a winery just down the road, Sevenhill Cellars... I actually start tomorrow. Big day!
So here is my best recollection of my past few days…

Jan 14
So my road trip started where I last left you last, in Sydney. The day before I spent most of the day in the hostel doing laundry and packing, all the time finishing (or trying to) my box of goon wine... first mistake! Ha.
Did I mention the really annoying new roommates I got in the hostel room? Ya, a couple from some eastern European country that talked and talked and talked... and in a language that if you asked me to guess I couldn't tell you... maybe Slovak or Russian... but they were drinking all night in the room and getting louder and gigglier (is that a word?) till like 12 when they headed out, probably to a disco or something but I was glad, my ear plugs couldn't keep out her high pitch voice... anyways... lets just say I was very excited to pick up the car in the morning and was ready to get a move on it out of Sydney.
So it being Wednesday night the restaurant up the road, The Shark Bar, was having its $2 steaks again and I couldn't resist. It was great and a hell of a deal! A decent little 8 oz steak and fries… plus beers only $4 too. Finished off the night in the lounge trying to give away the rest of my wine but no one wanted any… ending up having to leave about a ¼ of it… I hope it found a good home.

Jan 15
I awoke not feeling so good (that’s it! No more goon wine! Haha I don’t care how much of deal it is!) 4 liters for less then 15 dollars is just asking for trouble considering you can get a very decent bottle (normal bottle size is ¾ of a liters) is $15. So I started my long trek to the car dealer, it was just a short train ride south to the suburbs of Sydney… I was a little uncomfortable carrying so much cash on me, I kind of stuck out with a backpack the size of an 8th grader on my back. But I made it safe but quite sweaty. The dealer, Murray, was great! Got me a glass of water and we started on the paperwork and with in 30 minutes I was on the road. The car ran great, almost out of gas I headed for a gas station, always an adventure in foreign lands…so many unknowns, which side is my gas tank, do I pump or do they, do I pay before or after… luckily it all went smoothly, tank on the passenger side, you pump yourself and pay after. Gas or as they call it petrol (gas is for LPG gas cars) costs around $1.10 per liter… seems like a deal but that over $4 per gallon. Only thing was when I was walking back from paying I noticed a puddle of liquid under my car, further investigation showed it was coming from the overflow on the coolant tank… I was hoping it really was just over filled and was truly overflowing… the cooling system being so important with the conditions and long drive I had ahead, it worried me. But so far so good… checked it and still full and had a few times when the temp gauge climbed up going up hills but it returned to normal on the declines.
Hooked up my new little travel companion, my Garmin GPS, tuned in a great radio station triple J, (the radio is actually really great here, lots of new stuff) and headed south along the Princes Hwy… and I would remain on the Princes Hwy virtually my entire trip. It took a while to get used to driving on the right hand side of the car and left side of the road but after a few days I’m adjusted. I found it most hard to keep the car centered in the lane… I kept drifting to the left because I think it felt more natural to have my body over there, it was nice that there was the little rumble strip along the fog line so if I did drift a little too far I got a reminder. The worst are all the darn roundabouts… tricky at first but I’m a pro now. And every time I am turning out of an intersection I have to say in my head “short left, far right” so I don’t turn into oncoming traffic. Still haven’t tried to parallel park… cos I think my head would explode.
Now that I think about it… I feel like I got drugged or have been asleep for like 50 years… I mean it’s all so different and confusing yet it all feels familiar, I can make sense of everything but something just isn’t right… I can communicate with everyone but it’s just not English. I can drive alright but it’s all backwards. Even the money isn’t right… the smallest coin they have is about the size of a penny but is worth $2 and there’s a 50 cent piece about the size of those old JFK 50 cent pieces. And don’t get me started on the bills… it’s like I have a rainbow in my wallet. Its kind of funny thinking about it…anyways on with the quest!
The drive was amazing… the hwy goes along the coast with plenty of little lookouts and signs for interesting things, even made a few stops to dip my toes in the ocean. Notably Mt. Keira lookout which was a little out of the way but a great view for miles, Sublime Point Lookout which really was a sublime lookout of the coast line and a stop at Jervis Bay for a little beach combing along its white sand beach. The road passed through many small “surf” villages with beautiful beaches. My first day ended in the little fishing village of Narooma. Checked into the Lynch Hotel, they call it a pub room… as you can guess it’s just a room above the pub. After a shower I headed downstairs for the pub and had a great night with a few locals, getting a real taste of local life here.

Jan 16
Next morning I was up early and headed for a nearby beach and caught a couple surfers “hanging 10” hahaha Since I was approaching the border of the state I bought my car in I had to get it registered before I left… something the dealer made sound super easy but without internet or addresses to their DMVs I was lost. Tried calling my Mom to help but I think I just confused her with what I was trying to do. But what luck I found out there was a RTA (their dmv, Roads and Traffic Authority) in Narooma! Too bad it was closed. Headed for the next closest one… luckily it was open and the registration went relatively easy… accidentally got the wrong change back so it only cost like half as much as it should have… (Was thinking either karma was going to bite me for this or it was a little repayment for my troubles) All that work took me the better part of the day. Made it to a little fishing village called Eden where I stopped for a little bite to eat… as suggested by my guide books, I got fish and chips with the fish being flake. According to the books flake is actually a local shark in the area… Good!!! Take that sharky! It was delicious! Walked the wharf, very windy and snapped a few pics and was back on the road. Along the way I noticed a few of the rest stops had rainforest walks listed under the signs… so I decided to stop at one… randomly the one I stopped at was called the McKenzie River Rainforest walk, how weird. At this point I left the state of New South Wales and entered Victoria! Yay! Moving along. More beautiful driving and ended up in Orbost for the night… in another pub room. No drinking tonight, wanted to get up early and get further along since I missed out on half a days drive the day before. But did have a dinner of schnitzel… a classic aussie meal... it was basically a chicken fried steak with brown gravy on top… very good!

Jan 17
More beautiful driving, twisting and turning along the coast or winding up the hills. Well it was all good till I got to Melbourne, which my trusty garmin failed me, it only wanted to take me on the toll road that required a Epass prepaid thingy which I didn’t have and no booths to be seen… so I decided to just go around, plus it would give me a chance to see the town… too bad it was about 3 and rush hour traffic was pretty bad. I think it was only suppose to take me 15 minutes to get through town… it took me over an hour, grrrr.
Quickly arrived in Geelong where I left the Princes Hwy for my much anticipated detour, The Great Ocean Road!!! It was an awesome drive, curving right along the coast line, heaps of turnouts and lookouts for photo ops, and best of all the temperature was cool… very refreshing. Stopped at a famous surfer spot, Bells Beach and watch some great surfers for a while then headed along to Lorne to find a bed for the night, ended up in a youth hostel (always fun) checked in, walked the main drag looking for dinner, found a little burger place and headed, burger in hand, for the beach to enjoyed the twilight and sounds of waves crashing. But my peace was kind of disturbed by the local wildlife… although beautiful, they were loud, huge white cockatoos and other colorful parrots flying around squawking at each other.

Jan 18
Next morning had a little trouble getting out of the parking lot of the hostel… it was a grassy downhill and with the morning dew I couldn’t get any traction, thought I was going to have to call a tow truck or something, I was slipping farther forward toward doom! But luckily a car that was parked to the side left and I was able to make my escape over the sidewalk and off the curb… stopped at the pier before I left town and watched a few local fisherman and enjoyed the clam morning. I meant to get up early to watch the sun rise but was really sleepy at 6 and slept in, and found out it was for the better, the rest of my trip was all about timing, and mine was perfect. Driving along there were signs for a important light house coming up but when I looked for it on the Garmin it didn’t show up… when I got closer I found out why… there’s a big hole in the map! Luckily there was only one road…and what I found made my day, and the timing was perfect. Half way to the lighthouse I noticed a few cars pulled off the side of the road in the forested area I was travelling through… and noticed a small woodland critter scurrying along side the road, NO WAY!!! A freaking koala! I quick hopped out and took a few pictures. I then noticed there were koalas in about every other tree, all balled up on the branches sleeping. Too cute. Made it to the lighthouse but it cost money to see so I decided not to, I’ve seen some awesome lighthouses back home…koalas are way better. So back to the Great Ocean Road I went. And what do you know, not 30 minutes down the road another woodland critter in the road, this koala was just chilling in the middle of my lane… I pulled up slowly, he wasn’t going to budge, maybe a little old grumpy one. I pulled around so that it was directly outside my door and stopped. I thought about reaching out and petting but imagined him jumping up and going straight for my neck… AHHH!!! Seriously too cute. And not much further down the road more natural wonders to behold! There were lots of limestone rock formations, notably the Twelve Apostles, Gibson Steps (hand carved into the cliff), The Arch and the Crags…also stoped at something called the Granites but it was just a few big boulders on the beach. Not as cool as the pillars of limestone carved by eons of water and wind (maybe they were really big and you could only see a tiny bit above ground). Wish I could have spent more time in this area… very picturesque. Finally came to the end of the Great Ocean Road and hopped back onto Princes Hwy. Soon crossed into the state of South Australia… my home for the next few months. Starting to get a little warmer. Still close to coast but not the same drive.
That night I ended up in a little town called Robe… not sure the history but I was hoping that everyone would be wearing a robe. Stayed at the Lakeside Manor a hostel in a really old mansion made of limestone with ceilings that seemed over 20 feet tall. And another great timing moment was I had just enough time to check in then head for the beach to watch the sunset… it was beautiful (I even got a time-lapse of it) had a little local pizza then hit the hay. Actually had a great nights rest.

Jan 19
Final day of driving!!! Continued along the coast for most of the AM, but the temperature outside kept getting warmer and warmer… the worst to come. I put my trust into my Garmin GPS to bypass Adelaide hoping it would save some time, it took me on a winding adventure through many tiny towns in the bushlands east of Adelaide… I couldn’t even tell you the route. But at one point the heat got too much and I finally rolled up my windows and popped on the a/c… and it worked great!!! 2 hours later I arrived in the Clare Valley, my new home! Met up with Liz my new winemaker boss at Sevenhill Cellars, got a little tour, shook a few hands then headed off to a pub in Clare to meet my new roommates Carmen and Jarrad. Had a few schooners (small beers here, pints are bigger) did a little grocery shopping then headed back to there place where we made some pasta for Tea (aka dinner) and watch the Australia open (tennis) on TV till bed time… chatting all along about my travels and getting to know each other better.

Awww it feels good to be settled in and not have to travel for a little while. Too bad it involves having to work in this freaking heat… temps are right around 100 degrees but it’s a dry heat so it’s bearable. Well that’s all for now, I hope you all enjoy and sorry for the long post but internet wasn’t so easy to find or when I did find it they wanted something like 5 dollars for 30 minutes… and it took me most of the afternoon to write this…

Take Care and keep in touch!!!