Australia is a large country. It looks all tiny down there on the map. It isn't. Mudgee to Melbourne is a 10 hour drive. No stops, just driving.
After many weeks spent debating the merits of stopping mid way down and making the drive to Melbourne a 1-3 day affair. Thing is...there isn't much to stop and see along the way. So we opted to drive straight down. Down to where?
Not Melbourne, but close, we drove down to stay with Penny and her fabulous family in Launceston, about an hour away from Melbourne. Penny was an Australian exchange student that lived with friends of ours, and briefly us, back in 2009-2010.
We got up at 6 and were in the car just after 7, almost right on schedule. The danger of travelling our local roads at dawn and dusk is the local wildlife feed at that time of day. They pay absolutely no mind whatsoever to passing cars. Sadly, you'll see a very large amount of dead animals along any road that you drive along down here (outside of the major cities of course).
Less than an hour into our epic 10 hour drive I spot a large kangaroo making his way towards our car. I say "kangaroo". Dave thinks I'm just pointing out wildlife. He acknowledges that I am speaking.
I use some of the fancy math skills I gleamed early in life to calculate that the roo is aiming right for our car and I change my tone "KANGAROO KANGAROO KANGAROOOOOKANGAROOKANGAROO". Dave figured it out rather quickly and took evasive measures to save not just the Camry-but the road trip!!
Road trip saved, no I didn't get any photos of the kangaroo that tried to end the road trip.
That's about all the excitement as we made our way to Lancefield. It was about all of the excitement that I needed, so no complaints from me!
We passed through small towns, we only got gas once (yay Camry!!) We noticed many Aussie style ride programs, though we have still yet to get pulled over by one.
We found Anne and Peter's house and were welcomed with open arms. They hosted us for Good Friday family dinner. It was delicious!! Anne and her mother put a tremendous amount of thought in to preparing foods that we didn't have he chance to eat in Canada. We ate an entire snapper cooked on the BBQ as well as fish pie. Oh my goodness, it was all so good!!
We shared some Mudgee wine, they shared some local wine...we all slept soundly!!
Road trip selfie...there's not much else to keep me entertained on the long drive as Dave did all of the driving for this leg.
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