October 13th, A Great Start

WOW!!!!! WHAT A DAY!!!!!!!!!

I cannot even begin to explain the magic that today was. I won't do any justice! Nor will any pictures, but here goes...

We woke up EARLY (with the sun) to get to the boat on time to see some whales. We cooked a bit of breakfast (baked beans on toast....yeah, i know, weird) and took it down to the beach. When we got to the opening of the trail, we saw kangaroos all over the beach, which I guess is pretty special. We were the only ones on the whole massive beach and the sun was just rising, so the sky was bright orange and fresh to a new day. You know how early mornings feel....

Just off the beach, in the water straight ahead of where we were, there was a pod of dolphins playing in the surf. We were watching them for ages and then we looked a bit further out and there were two whales playing just out from them!!! It was just like National Geographic style. I was speechless. You really couldn't ask for a more dreamy scene. I mean it.

Unfortunately we had to run. We ended up a bit late to the boat, but luckily it was still there....though the engines were running and we got some nasty looks as we climbed aboard. Nonetheless, we had an amazing time. We saw about ten whales total. There were some mamas with their calves and some massive males who were lunge feeding. It's sort of a weird thing...they jump up, open their mouths and skim across the top of the water to eat. Not sure...just going by the guide's terms.

After we got off the boat, we drove to Matt's friends, Josh's. I was driving and Matt was asleep, but his last words were that I could stop anywhere I wanted to and do anything I felt fit for the duration of my drive. So I followed some signs to a very touristy publicized place. It seemed like the thing to do, but I ended up way off the highway and in a town where the only way out was the way you came in. Not good. It didn't even end up being that cool of a place, so Matt wasn't thrilled when I woke him up, told him we were nearly out of gas and that we were about 40 kilometers off track. Ha. So, no more driving for me (THANKFULLY!). We decided that something needed to be done in this tiny town called Malacoota, so we had a cartwheel race. It was fun.

Then we headed out. We ended up at Josh's and his girlfriend, Liz the chef, made us a nice dinner on the barbie and we hung out and talked and played with their dog, Zipper.

Josh and Liz live on this big farm in Bairnsdale and it is so cool. They are nearly completely self-sustainable with their own water collection, huge garden and solar panels. They also have a pet pig and 2 goats. Their names are Miss Piggy, Benny and Kenny.

That's it.