Road trip to Sydney - day one

16 October 2011
Route: Melbourne to Eden by way of Marlo/C107 scenic route, stop at French’s Narrows turnout
Distance: 579 km (360 mi)

Ruthie set us a goal of leaving by 10a on Sunday morning.  We were pulling out of the garage at 10.20a.  So not bad.  But in true fashion for me, I rushed out the door forgetting a few things.  1. I left my book [just started Battle Royale] sitting beside the bed.  2. I brought a laptop, but none of the photos I need to work on [and I’m way behind on photos] are on this laptop.  3. Since this country has conveniently placed switches on every outlet, I had meant to run around the apartment and turn everything off - but I failed to do so.  But at least it’s only 3 things.  We have our atlas, and plenty of guide maps; we have Ruthie’s newly acquired dashboard compass that is so old, the liquid has vanished and the directional ball is a bit shriveled [don’t ask me why she bought it]; we finally have cupholders [they clip into the air vents]; Ruthie bought me a fuzzy seatbelt cover so that the thing wouldn’t dig into my neck all the time; I have cameras; and we have our sunglasses.

So far our only actual mishap has been the mysterious and very unfortunate breakage of Ruthie’s Kindle.  For reasons unexplained she set it down to look at something and when she picked it back up, the screen was all messed up, like something had cracked.  There’s no easily available internet at the hotel room, so I can’t see what the internets say.  But that makes two of us without a book - and it’s a bigger deal for Ruthie to not have one.

During our back roads driving into Eden, we finally saw some wild ‘roos.  Wallabies, actually.  Which makes Lorraine happy, as every time we passed a Caution Wildlife sign, she’d start calling for the kangaroos to come out.  *dramatic eye roll*  The first one we saw as I was in the middle of slamming on the brakes to not hit it - but the second one was nicely perched beside the road, and we were able to slow down and wave at it before it ran away.

The hotel we picked for the night, Twofolds Bay Motor Inn, is pretty decent.  There is a nice view of the ocean when you walk out the door.  We went in search of seafood for dinner last night, but ended up with just some pub food.  Still good, though.

The ocean, while still cold [according to Ruthie at least, I didn’t tempt fate by trying to touch the surf], is beautiful shades of blue.  Now that we are in New South Whales and as we work our way north of Eden, I expect/hope a lot more of the road will be closer to the ocean.

PS -  I am wearing shorts.  For the second day in a row.  This is very excites!

-EP