Since we’ve been travelling in the southern part of Australia, I’ve been paying more attention to the weather (the northern part was quite reliably sunny, sunny, sunny, sunny with more sunny on the horizon). All week I saw that today was the shining beacon of hope for something other than stormy rain. Much to my delight, the forecast came true. You would have thought that after all this anticipation we’d be up early and out there as soon as possible? Sadly, not the case, we didn’t leave the house until 11AM…
The plan was to drive down to the south of the Mornington Peninsular, Sorrento, meet up with my nephew (who also coincidentally is in town), have lunch, do some sightseeing, come home.
We drove along the highway as far as Frankston then followed the coast to Sorrento. We wanted to see some of those colourful beach boxes that are famous in Melbourne, so Risa did some research and found that there were hundreds of them listed in the Rosebud area, so we headed there. We found a nice long jetty and went for a walk along it to see if we could spot those colourful little houses, but had no luck. We were absolutely stunned at how beautiful the water was though… It was almost as clear as Coral Bay (Broome). Again, my expectations of beaches around Melbourne were based on St. Kilda (which is a pretty rubbish beach, sorry). This was was truly beautiful.
Oddly, as we were walking up the jetty, a chubby bearded hipster was walking down with his shirt off. He mentioned something to us about a Green Sea Turtle and climbed down over the railings into the water. He then walked out (in the unpleasantly cool water) towards the turtle. Another couple on the jetty told us that he was here to help rescue this animal, as they aren’t supposed to be this far south, so they suspected something was wrong with it. Turned out that he was with a wildlife rescue organisation and was there to try and find out what was wrong with the animal. I’d prejudged him as being a little crazy, but turns out he was really compassionate (I don’t know how keen I’d be to get into that water). Anyway, he reached the animal and tried to bring it in to shore, but the turtle just swam away as though nothing was wrong with it. He let it be and began the long walk back to his dry clothes, none the wiser as to why it was there. Instead of cold, he was excited that he got to see a green turtle for the first time…
We were quite surprised at how long it took to reach Sorrento (a little under two hours of driving). I was actually a little hungry by now, so ordered a cheeseburger. I know the photo looks very dull/plain/carb-heavy, but it was actually really delicious. Nice juicy patty, good cheese, good pickles and good sauce. We sat there in the sun for a while chatting with my nephew, who I haven’t seen in a while and his girlfriend, who is a French exchange student studying here in Melbourne.
Sorrento was most certainly a tourist town, and by the looks of the shops/restaurants, one that catered to a more well-to-do class of tourist. We headed over to the other side of the peninsular to have a look at the surf beach. Again, I was quite impressed/surprised at how beautiful it was. We were even more surprised at all the kids that were in the water swimming (though, by now it was most certainly t-shirt weather). The outer waves looked like great surfing waves, except for all the rocks…
It was starting to get late, so we parted (they had to return to Melbourne via a series of busses and trains…) and tried to find some of these elusive painted beach boxes. A lady in Rosebud said that there were nice beach boxes in Sorrento – we couldn’t see them. A lady in the tourist information centre in Sorrento was surprised, and said that there were lots of pretty ones in Rosebud, not Sorrento…
We just drove north following the coast, and each time we saw some beach boxes we pulled over to have a look. The first ones we found weren’t quite the style we were thinking of…
It was incredible how calm the water on the bay was – there was barely a ripple, but I guess there was also next to no wind. We stopped at a few more places, and the just didn’t match with my predetermined idea of what they looked like – lots of small and colourful sheds sitting on a nice beach by the water. We found out from the lady in Rosebud that some of those houses sell for up to $70,000! For a timber shed! And it’s only used to store beach equipment, like chairs, BBQ and boats.
Risa had been saying all day that Brighton had nice beach boxes, so that was our eventual destination. Sure enough, as we arrived in the car park, we could see we were in the right spot as there was a large wedding group taking photos, as well as dozens of other photographers walking around with cameras and tripods. We’d actually planned to come here to do some more cliché wedding photography, so for once it was nice not to stand out. The beach houses were really nice, lots of interesting colours and designs and it was exactly the image that I had in my mind. Sadly, we’d arrived as the sun was disappearing, so light was pretty limited. We did a lap of the houses, found some that we liked, got a couple of photos and headed back to our friend’s place.
We had a quiet night out at their friend’s newly renovated pub, and on the way home we had a flat tyre… Making matters more complicated her car didn’t have a jack, and the spare was also flat… So, we had to catch a taxi back to their house, grab their other car (with a jack in it), drive back to her car, take the spare wheel to a service station to inflate, take it back and put it on her car. It was just before 2AM when we finally got to sleep!
１４３日目 １０月 ４日（金） モーニングトン半島
なんとロスのいとこのネッドも彼女に会いにブリスベンから、メルボルンに来ていました笑
なんと言う偶然。
今日は、終日お天気もよいので、メルボルン市内から２時間ほどの場所にあるモーニングトン半島へショーットトリップへ！
もうすでにネッドは彼女とバスと列車を乗り継いで到着しているらしいので、私たちの先を急ぎ彼らのいる半島のハジっこ近くのソレントとい町を目指すがその前に、ちょっと寄り道。
この半島には、メルボルンのポストカードにもよく描かれているカラフルなビーチハウスが浜辺のあちこちに点在することでも有名な場所なので、それをちょっとのぞいてみようとRosebudという小さなビーチタウンで寄り道。
ビクトリア州はキレイなビーチは有名ではないし、私もメルボルン付近のビーチと言ったらセントキルダかブライトン位しか行った事がないのだけど、このRoseBudの海の透明度には、驚き！！！ 西オーストラリア州の美しさに感動したブルームの海のような透明度。 これは、ぜんぜん期待してなかったし本当に驚かされました。
こんなキレイなメルボルンからそう遠くない所にあるなんて、、、もちろんブルームやクイーンズランドに比べれば泳げる期間はとっても短いけど、それでもメルボルンからすぐにこんなキレイな海があるなんて感動。。やっぱ住みたい笑
桟橋を歩いているお兄さん発見。 天気は良いものも、風は冷たく、気温は２０℃以下。もちろん泳げる温度ではないけど、このお兄さん、向こうにミドリガメがいるよ！ といって目の前でドボンと海に入った！
まじかい！ どんだけカメ好きなんじゃいと驚いていたら、側にいた老夫婦が、あのカメはケガをしていて、彼は、地元の野生動物保護団体の人なのよと教えてくれました。 なるほど、彼は、ただのカメ好きクレイジーな人ではなく、スーパーマンでカメさんのレスキューの任務にあたっているのね。
海は彼の腰くらいなので、泳ぐ深さでもないので、しばらく浅瀬を歩いてカメさんの様子をうかがっていましたが、上がってきたお兄さんに聞いてみると特にケガをしている様子はないけど、この種のカメは、西オーストラリアやクイーンズランド周囲の暖かい海にいるべきなので、この場所にいるべきではないみたい。
肌は、寒さで真っ赤になってたけど、お兄さん今までこのカメを見た事がないので、寒いけど、海に入って見に行った甲斐があったよ！と笑顔。
いい人です。
その後は、ソレントへ向けてドライブを開始。 ネッドと彼女と落ち合い、ぶらぶらしながらランチの場所を探す事に。
ボーイズはハンバーガー、彼女はパスタ、わたしはピザとみんなバラバラだけど、みんな満足のランチとなりました。
久々の再会にお話がはずみます。
ランチの後は、ソレント半島の反対側に行ってきました。歩くとちょっと距離があるので、ネッドと彼女は、デリちゃんの後ろに隠れてもらい一緒に移動。
湾になっていて、湖のように穏やかな海とは反対側なので、こちらは、かなり大きな波が立ち、サーフィンをしている人もいました。
荒々しい北海道の海岸ような岩場とビーチ、そして青い海。 メルボルンの大都市から2時間足らずでこんな大自然の美しいビーチがあるなんて、今まで知らなかった〜。
クレイジーなのが、この温度の中ビキニで泳いでる子供達！ さむそーー！
時間も４時近くなっていたので、ネッドと彼女と別れ、私たちは、かわいいビーチハウス（本当は、ビーチボックスという）を探しに、帰りはハイウェイではなく、海岸線をドライブ。
こちらは、湾側なので、海は湖のように波がなく、とっても穏やかで、きれい。
途中たくさんのビーチボックスがあるものも、思っていたよりあんまりカラフルでかわいくなかったりなので、私が行ったことがあるメルボルンの街から４０分程の場所にあるブライトンという場所へ行く事に。
砂浜は、茶色いし、ごみや海草やらがかなり多いので、キレイじゃないけど、このアイコン的なビーチボックスを見に夕暮れながらまだたくさんの人々がいました。
ここのビーチボックスはやっぱりキレイにペイントされていて、かわいい♡
中には、オーストラリアの国旗、インベーダーゲームのキャラクターのものなどなど、どれも個性的でかわいらしいです。
このボックスは、電気も水も通ってないので、やはりビーチハウスではなく、あくまでもボックス。 用途は、ボートや海遊び道具を収納するのが主な理由で、中には、小さなバルコニーがあるので、そこで休憩をしたり。 大きさは、かなり小さいただの物置なのに、これがなんと７００万もするらしい！
夜は、ミッキーとエリースがチョリソーとニョッキのディナーを作ってくれました♡うまーい！
そしてその後は、2人の知り合いがオープンしたパブの開店日なので、いっぱい飲んできました♫
その後お腹がすいたと帰り道にマクドナルドに寄って、ちょっとしたらエリースの車に異変が。
なんと真夜中に車のタイヤがパンクー！！！
タクシーで家まで戻り、暖かい服装に着替え、用具を持って、ミッキーの車でまたエリースの車がある場所まで戻りました。
私も一緒に行ったけど、特に手伝える訳ではないので車内で待機。修理の一部始終中、気づいたらずっと眠ってしまっていました笑
結局家に戻ったのは、2時。。。
なんだかかんだ今日も内容盛りだくさんの１日でした！！
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