Meet Steve

Mallacoota – Wednesday, 08 December 2010
StevieWonder

Meet Steve, our Wicked Van for our second roadtrip from Melbourne to Sydney. As a camper he is pretty good with plenty of leg space and storage room. As a car on the other hand, he sucks monkey balls! It might have something to do with his age (he was definitely made before we were born) but he smells (the engine is situated underneath the passengers seat), he makes the weirdest sounds and he sputters when we start and stop (!) him. He is an old tart. In his defense, he has been through a lot, 533.000 kms to be exact, which is about 13 times around the world!

Smelly, noisy and slowly we began our roadtrip. First stop: Yarra Valley. Where there’s a Valley there’s Wine! And a lovely landscape.

A divine tree in Yarra Valley

Next stop: Philip Island, home of the world’s smallest penguin: “the little penguin”. They come out of the ocean at sunset to feed their younglings who wait ashore in nests. We went to see this “Penguin Parade”, along with a few hundred other tourists. It was super cute: the tiny penguins are shy, afraid of the seagulls and take forever to come out of the sea. It’s a pity we weren’t allowed to take pictures.

The next day we encountered a far less cuddly animal on Philip Island: The Black Mamba! (which might just be a Black Adder).

The Black Mamba

Andrew jumped up in total horror…

Panic!!!

… but luckily The Black Pangan was there to scare the Black Mamba back into his hole!

The Black Pangan

Peace quickly returned to the beautiful Philip Island.

Philip Island

In the afternoon we got off the Island and drove on Gippsland Highway. We passed by some beautiful lookouts over the ocean.

Cape Patersen

We finished the sunny Sunday in Wilsons Promontory National Park, also known as “The Prom”. The camping area was next to a magnificent beach. Unfortunately schoolies were here once again making a lot of noise and giggles, especially in the ladies room.

Wilsons Prom Beach

To escape from teenage hormones we took an evening walk along Tidal river to Pillar Point. The walk and the altering weather provided for some nice pics.

Tidal River
Pillar Point with a Pangan and a Rainbow

While heading to Lakes Entrance the next day we drove along the “Ninety Mile Beach” and had lunch in Seaspray, a sleepy coastal village. We were the talk of the town for the 200 residents. An older nosy couple came up to us for a chat while we were cooking pasta and interrogated us about our adventures. We also passed the town of Metung where we had coffee in the local restaurant where the whole town was having dinner (only 20 seats). Even though we know the BYO concept (Bring Your Own Alcohol), its still strange for us to see people pulling out their own bottles of wine (some already half empty) on the table of a posh restaurant. We arrived pretty late in Lakes Entrance and went to sleep after a beer in the local pub.

We hadn’t had any rain for the last couple of days, however, there was plenty of wind. The wind was even playing tricks on Melanie’s hair while she was having her morning Latte.

Windy Latte

And then we did what every Ozzie dreams about: Sipping beers before lunch-time while fishing on a boat! Although we had captain Andrew behind the wheel, we ran into troubles, TWICE. But it wasn’t our fault, really, it wasn’t! It was the crappy “put-put” engine that died on us. TWICE. Oh and the fish didn’t bite, even after trowing in all our bait. The beer however did not disappoint.

Captain Pangan

To recover from all this adventure we found ourselves an abandoned beach in Marlo where we relaxed in the sun and read books until we saw the sun settle in the sea.

Private Beach

Wednesday morning we went to Cape Conran. During our morning walk along the beach we saw some unidentified birds taking off.

Ready for Takeoff

Melanie also tried to take off. Too bad there is something called gravity.

Flying Pangan
Landing Pangan

Andrew was standing nearby analyzing Melanie’s peculiar behavior. He couldn’t get a full diagnoses, but one thing he was sure about. It was definitely not Lupus!

Its not Lupus!

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