On the road!

Well I started my journey. Left yesterday (Monday) morning about 6:30. The weather sucked the whole way, bad rain, windy and clouds. After leaving the Clare valley I entered the barossa valley, and the heavens openned up, my windshield wipers couldn't keep up. I was actually excited to drive through the valley and check out the wineries... But no stopping in this weather. Might have another chance in a couple weeks but likely not. Guess I'll have to come back. Haha I also had a goal to find a place to get an oil change... Thought "easy task, just need to find the Aussie version of jiffy lube, 15 minute delay, easy!" well found the biggest city along the way, Murray Bridge, drove around for about an hour with no luck, so gave up, filled up with petrol, grabbed a farmers union ice coffee (only in south australia & would be leaving SA soon) and continued down the road. Weather at this point wasn't bad, intermittent rain and clear skys. Next stop was in Bordertown, you guessed it on the border of the states SA and victoria. From here I headed to the Grampians, a mountain range and national forest. Really wish it would have been clear, what I could see was awesome though, big jagged peaks, dense forests (been in rolling hills of drought stricken Clare for too long). Oh yeah and I saw more wild kangaroos!!! One actually jumped across the road in front of me! Cool but I think it would cause major damage, like hitting a deer low to the ground. Took a nice hike to the bottom of the Mackenzie falls... Got me pretty winded but great to get out of the car after driving for hours!!! By the time I finally got down out of the mountains it was just about 6 pm and starting to get dark... Looking back I should have stopped for the night but really was looking forward to meeting up with my buddies Ryu and Sarah in Melbourne... Should have realized driving in heavy rain in city traffic would be hell!!! But I made it, only 30 off schedule! At 8:30. That's right I drove from Clare to Melbourne in one shot, 14 hours on the road. I'm still tired, haha. But today was pretty relaxed. Ryu, Sarah and I took the free tourist bus all over the city checking out the sites...MCG, victoria market, a bunch of cool art & statues, this massive ferris wheel, federation square and ... Ya the whole city! Finished it off by getting a beer at this famous bar with a nude painting called chloe. Can't remember the name at the moment, right across the street from the flinders train station.
Tomorrow more of the same, finally getting my car in for an oil change (hopefully nothing more) so will be car-less. Might just find a quiet cafe and people watch in one of the ethic neighborhoods, maybe the Italian one. Thursday I'm headed for Sydney to sell back my car then fly to Tasmania on Saturday. I'm pretty excited, used my iPhone to book both the tour and flight all over the Internet... I love technology.

-- Post From My iPhone