Today we headed out to Narana, Aboriginal cultural centre, to learn more about the native culture and history. It was unfortunately not that extensive and either their painting culture is rather strict or the gallery limited in variation – a large majority paintings had titles including  “dreams” and/or elements and lots of patterns. Not really quenched on our hunger for native history we decided to at least throw some boomerangs and scout for wallabies in the park.

Meh

Wallabies were found and throwing boomerangs were unexpectedly fun as well as tricky, Mona being the closest to actually have the boomerang return. The weather kept improving so we took another trip down towards Bells beach to see if there were any decent surf going on. There were some people in the water (as always) but not enough good waves for Jonte to feel the urge to get his boards. On the way there we also spotted wild kangaroos which were a bit shy, and hopped away when I walked closer to try to catch some close-ups but perhaps best for all involved on the other side.

Since we would leave Torquay for tomorrow we went to bed rather early after another spicy dinner where my father, known to use the outside bbq between early February and mid December and a in general stark proponent of meat, stated that it was indeed possible to create really nice vegetarian food. This may sound rude but it was perhaps one of the greater compliments my brother as a chef heard given the context.

Bye Bells Beach – until next time!

Having Juni sleep for two hours in the evening proved to be a bad idea, so we had a wide awake baby for an hour between two and three. On the other hand it wasn’t all bad since I picked up the Expanse series and started reading the fourth book – Cibola Burn.

After a sleep-in we split up into to teams, one for Kathmandu shopping where Mona got a raincoat and nice merino wool sweater and yours truly a pair of liner gloves in merino as well. Mother and Janelle headed for the wool museum, which they enjoyed more than we would have.

We met then up at the White Rabbit Brewery, and obviously had to sample their beers. It was tricky to determine a winner but the pale ale was probably my favorite.

Parenting and Grand-parenting 101

After a few bears we headed on to the next brewery – Little Creatures for more beers and dinner. Again, the pale ale was my beer of choice and the food wasn’t bad either. It got quite crowded and noise as the afternoon progressed, apparently drinking on Sundays is a popular thing. It’s referred to as Sunday Sesh by the locals and guarantees that the starting of the work week is so much nicer.

Instead of going all in on beers we decided to stop by and watch Sean, room-mate of our hosts play Beach Volleyball finals. Unfortunately the results didn’t cause for celebrations but then again that meant that I could get back to my book when the others hit the sack.

Still keeping the jetlag at bay we went up quite early to walk to the farmers market in Torquay. It was a mix of small stalls offering various edibles but more importantly a food truck with really nice sandwiches for breakfast and another truck with local coffee for the caffeine addicted.

The climate is a bit strange with some people are wearing down jackets next to others wearing t-shirt and shorts, it quickly shifts from sunny 20° to windy and rainy 12° – but it doesn’t stop people from swimming and lounging at beaches. After walking back and waking up dad we packed up the mini-van and went on the Great Ocean Road to Lorne.

Being Saturday with nice weather it was more populated than the previous beaches but the surfing seemed more suitable for beginners, or at least today the waves were pretty small so we skipped that once again. Instead it was a nice stroll along the beach and it seems there had been some volcanic activities going on ages ago creating quite interesting ground formations. We assumed it was melted lava as well as the water grinding down the softer materials creating weird almost organic shapes in the rocks.

After walking to the end of the sand beach we looped back for a nice lunch/fika where we were accompanied with some street musician who was actually not that bad – or good enough for Mona to buy another coffee to get some change at least.

We then took the road back towards Torquay for some grocery shopping. The (lack of) city design is very similar to US suburbia style, and new areas are being developed everywhere. Basically low houses with driveways closely cluttered in square districts without any restaurants and instead all the service concentrated in shopping areas you get to by car.

For the afternoon and evening (still getting used to that at sun sets at 19:30 when it’s spring/summer) we just hanged out while our hosts prepared yet another fantastic dinner – this time it was mexican themed.

I think we can get used to this life.