Hi Gram,
Onward and upward! We got up early this morning and hit the road for our road trip, the next leg of this amazing Australian leg of the journey. We were all a little groggy loading the car and going through the house to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind. There wasn’t much traffic as we headed out of town and the roads opened up to beautiful vistas.

Our first stop was Rob’s hometown, a cute little hamlet with quaint buildings and friendly folks. Rob dropped David and I at a coffee shop while he ran to his parents house to drop off some luggage and say hello. After grabbing a few warm drinks, David and I walked up the hill to a lighthouse where Rob suggested we’d see a blow hole. It took us a while to find it, meandering around and not in any kind of hurry. By the time we got there, Rob had run home and come back, beating us to the blow hole by a few minutes. Reading about the physics behind how they work was fascinating – there’s a whole area carved out underneath where we were standing where water fills up with one wave, then starts to exit as the next wave brings in another round of water. The two masses of water collide and drive up through the opening in the rock, causing a massive explosion of water. We drove around town to another of Rob’s favorite childhood blowholes, where we saw a couple of bicyclists stopped there along their long ride as well.

Back on the road, we enjoyed the scenery as we wound past sheep and cows, got some views of the coastline, and chatted away about everything and nothing. It was fun seeing some of the local culture on our stops, eating unique Australian candy, and getting pictures of some of the wildlife. We pulled into Lakes Entrance, a small town about halfway between Sydney and Melbourne where we rented a small cabin for the night. I think there’s some fishing or other tourist destination nearby because the cabin reminded me of fisherman’s cottages in Michigan and Indiana from my youth, complete with signs about not cleaning your fish in the cabin, explaining where the facilities for that were located outside. The bed was comfortable, though, and everything was tidy and clean so we all went to our separate rooms and got a good night’s rest.