Where in the World is Ms. Simon?

This is my last post from Australia! The time here has just flown by and I’m not quite sure where it went!

Harlan and I went for a trip along the southern coast of Australia called the Great Ocean Road. It’s a winding road that goes along the seashore in some places and passes through eucalyptus groves and temperate rain forests in others. Sometimes we had to go very slowly because the curves in the road were very tight, around 10 miles per hour! Harlan did a very good job driving, especially since he had to concentrate very hard to stay on the correct side. And I had to sit where in the US I would be driving. It is a very different feeling, one that takes a while to get use to. I kept trying to use the brake, but there wasn’t one!

We were gone for three days and two nights. Here are some of my favorite pictures. These are from our first walk in a rainforest.

We also saw some koalas in the trees! Aren’t they cute?

I loved the eucalypt forests. The branches were dripping with the shedding bark.

This picture shows the closest I ever got to seeing a kangaroo in the wild. I kept driving by these signs but....no kangaroos for Ms. Simon!

The ocean views were just lovely, with the sun coming and going. The landscapes are made by the erosion of rocks by the ocean waves. Just like in Maine! We also saw a lot of surfers….I thought it was still a little chilly( the weather was cold for Australia) to surf but the water was a lot warmer than the ocean water in Maine, even in the summer.

One morning Harlan and I went out for breakfast. I had green eggs and ham!!! Harlan had pancakes with walnuts and ice cream! Ice cream for breakfast!

I like to hike and Harlan and I hiked to this waterfall. It was very moist in the forest. It wasn’t a very adventuresome hike however. The park people had made the path and it included hundreds of stairs!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was the Otway Fly. It was a path on a steel walkway that let you be 75 feet up in the air! You got to walk in the canopy of the rainforest. I adored being up so high and looking way down at the ferns, which seemed so small. Of course, in reality, the ferns were large and tall.