Hanging Rock

Today I fly into Melbourne to start my journey of Victoria and South Australia. I am arriving in the early evening so I decide to book a hotel near the airport for the evening and pick up my rental car in the morning. When I walk outside to meet my hotel shuttle I am very happy to be greeted with temperatures of 68⁰F (20⁰C). I am in heaven. I spent the last couple months sweating non-stop but now I am finally in my favorite temperatures. I love Melbourne already and I haven’t even left the airport.

I have a dinner in the hotel restaurant and then leave early in the morning to pick up my rental car. A new adventure is starting, I have never driven on left side of the road nor the right side of the car. I am nervous but I am up for the challenge.

I take a little while to make sure I am familiar with the car and all the gadgets. I have also sprung for the GPS like I did in Spain; I make sure to have all my coordinates inputted.

Soon I am off on the road. I am nervous but I drive slower and stay in the slow lanes. Traffic gets thick in some places but luckily it is not too bad. My drive is less than an hour. I can do it!

It is almost mid day when I arrive at Hanging Rock, my main destination for the day. I could have visited this site on my way to other travels but I don’t like to rush my travel – especially when I am traveling alone. I plan to visit Hanging Rock and then stay the night in the area.

Why do I choose to visit Hanging Rock do you ask? Besides it being a very interesting looking rock structure, I also have a family connection of sorts. I recently have lost my aunt who died a horrible slow death at a relatively young age. In the 1970’s she went to see the mystery movie Picnic at Hanging Rock in the movie theater with my grandmother and they both loved the film. My aunt had communicated that to me in the past so I watched the movie on my own and was drawn to the film as well. Viewing the movie made me want to visit the sight where it is filmed. I spent some time helping my aunt convalesce in Las Vegas in the year prior to this trip. Unfortunately she died a couple months later but during my time with her the new series Picnic at Hanging Rock came out. I was able to watch the series with my aunt not knowing that is the last time I would get to spend any kind of quality time with her before she died. So you can say I have an emotional connection to this place and the visit is a pilgrimage of sort.

I walk up a concrete path where the view of the rocks gets clearer the closer I get. In the movie the girls walk through brush and cross streams. I have a nice paved path that takes me straight there.

Once at the top I enjoy the views below.

I notices the crevices between the rocks so I do some exploring.

I also do a slight bit of rock scrambling but really it is just me sliding down some rocks on my butt.

I come to an area where I am alone and only hear bees buzzing, it is very ominous. This is where I feel like I could have been part of a movie scene.

More crevices….

Some rocks to sit on to enjoy the view. I see farms and maybe alpacas or llamas in the distance.

I start my descent back down where I actually see hanging rocks. I chose the smooth flat uphill path on the way up and taking the stairs on the way down. I am glad I chose that method.

There is a short trail around the rock formation. I take the trail around the loop. I seem to be the only one taking the trail. I hear nature and get other views of the hanging rock.

As I drive away I stop to take photos from another angle.

It is a nice visit. I wish I would have brought a picnic and bottle of wine to truly live out a picnic at hanging rock. If you haven’t see the original movie it is an interesting watch.

I check into my guesthouse twenty minutes away at Lancefield Guest House. I do a self check-in and don’t see another soul there until the next morning. I feel like I have the whole place to myself for the night.

At the guesthouse I see a list of the activities in the area and I spot a couple wineries close by that are still open for the day. I rush out to visit some cellar doors (cellar doors are what tasting rooms are called in Australia).

Here is my little note about what I know about Australian wines: In my opinion the majority wines we import in the United States from Australia are the most horrible wines ever. I am coming into my wine journey of Australia with low expectations.

WOW am I surprised!

I start my tasting at Cleveland Winery.

I am pleasantly surprised with my tastings. The first two are sparkling wines which I generally avoid due to headaches but they are quite good. I even like the chardonnay I sample and it is hard for me to find a chardonnay I like. Even though I didn’t think I am a fan of the style, the shiraz wine is pleasant to me. I pick up a bottle or two of wine to take back with me. I wouldn’t normally buy bottles while I am traveling but I will be traveling by car for about a week so no worries about carrying bottles on my back.

The hostess at Cleveland recommends a couple more wineries in the area. I only have time (and alcohol tolerance) for one more so I visit Curly Flat.

It is a terrific recommendation. The wines are more expensive but pretty good. I also pick up two bottles here – one I mean to take to my cousin when I visit him in Sydney. Sadly (for him) the wine never made it to Sydney. I couldn’t resist opening it a week later.

I head back to my hotel and walk to get dinner.

I walk to Lancefield Hotel to get dinner. They are all booked for the night at their nicer sit down dining (reservations only) but I am able to order food at the bar. I order the not so healthy prawn and chicken in garlic cream sauce. It seems like it might be the Australian version of comfort food. I sleep well after that meal.

I am staying in a sleepy area so there is not much to do after dinner. I head back to my room and get some rest.

Tomorrow I start my road trip!

Out West 2017! Get your kicks on route 66

One of my favorite Depeche Mode songs is their remake of the song Route 66.

Route 66 always symbolized an idyllic road trip. The song lists all these towns that you will see along the way. For my road trip out west, I had a chance to take route 66 along some of my route. I didn’t get to hit many towns listed in the song, and we left too late to really enjoy lots of daylight hours on the road, but it was still and interesting trip.

First there is a stop at the Lake Mead Recreational area to get a good look,

Then we stopped at an old time-y gas station. It had closed just before we arrived since it was already getting late. I snapped a couple pictures and got back on the road.

The rest of the drive to Flagstaff was dark and isolating. It reminded me a little of the latest season of Twin Peaks, kind of creepy. But we made it to Flagstaff safely for the night. We had a little time for local craft brews and pizza before calling it a night. We are heading to Grand Canyon the next day.

Out West 2017! Extraterrestrial Highway

During my road trip out west I had a couple days to hang with my aunt in Nevada. We had no set plans but somehow we ending up talking ourselves into taking a drive to go to see Area 51.
I drove and we really didn’t know where we were going so we sort of followed directions going north.

The scenery was other worldly. I felt like I was on another planet. It was a long drive but we finally see a sign so we know we are on the right track.

At this point our phones are useless. It is just miles and miles of roads. We look for Area 51 but all we see are dirt roads to “nowhere”. When we arrived back to my aunt’s house that night we discovered that one of those dirt roads was probably the way to Area 51. There is no signage.

We stop at a little alien town along the way, it could be creepy at night.

It was fall and the sun was starting to set early. Those roads were scary during the day so we decided to turn back to get to civilization before dark. It proved to be a very healing trip. My cousin (my aunt’s niece) passed away earlier in the year. One of her favorite recent trips was down this highway. We were able to think fondly of her as we passed the signs.

St Pete Breweries Day 2

We started off our second day of St. Pete with brunch at Peg’s Cantina. It was a good time on the patio enjoying food beer and friends.

I thoroughly enjoyed this cheese appetizer. It didn’t last long.

Blueberry goat cheese pancakes

The bill comes in this fun box.

Soon after Peg’s we headed over to 3 Daughters for our first beer tasting of the day.

The 3 Daughters tasting room was attractively decorated there. We spent quite a bit of time sipping our samples there. I soon realized that they had an outdoors activity area. You can play games with a view of the brewing facilities.

Our next stop was Cycling Brewing. Their cream & sugar, please was all the rage. We had fun hanging at their tasting room but soon it was time to head back home.

Not quite done yet. We decided to stop at Rapp Brewing Company heading out of Tampa. It proved to be the best stop of the day. You can tell they love what they do, you can taste it in their beers.

So the trip comes to an end. I will return someday. However next on the list is all the great breweries in Dunedin. See you soon!