Everybody's gone surfing....

After another week at work Sarah drove to pick me up from Rochester on friday afternoon (16th February) for a long drive down to Gippsland, a region south east of Melbourne. Sarah had to buy a weekend pass at the post office in Echuca for the toll road that runs through Melbourne, as there were no alternative routes, unless we wanted to be driving for hours. At about 6pm we hit Melbourne and we felt at home, driving on the A14 on a friday night, as we were stuck in rush hour traffic. Unlike the UK's transport infrastructure we got moving pretty quickly though. We arrived in the small town of Leongatha after a 4 and a bit hour journey. The weekend was organised by the International Teachers Association (an organisation that we had joined at the conference at the end of January in Melbourne). The ITA is run by Australians who have participated in previous exchanges in countries like UK, USA and Canada. We were due to stay at a host family for the weekend in Leongatha. In the evening we drove to a party in the town organised by a member of the ITA, and even though I was driving and we arrived late (due to our long journey) we still had a good time.

The following morning we got up early and went on a tour of Gippsland by bus, stopping off at various points on the way. It was a sweltering hot day and our first port of call was at some interesting rock formations and tide pool location. Afterwards we set off to Phillip Island where we had lunch on the beach followed by a game of international beach cricket in the scorchingly hot sand. In the afternoon we visited an exposed area of the island where seals breed and sleep, as well as different types of penguin who were nestled away hiding under rocks to avoid the afternoon sun. Later we visited a koala sanctuary where we saw numerous koalas all suffering because of the weather. We then went to have late afternoon tea (or beer in my case). Finally we returned to Inverloch (where we had started in the morning) to have a meal and get together in a hut on the beach. More cricket and beer followed before we ate dinner (again kindly organised by the ITA) watching the setting sun over the sea. Sarah and I were one of the last to leave after nightfall to head back to Leongatha, which was about a 30km drive inland.

On the sunday morning we left Leongatha, on an empty stomach, to head back to Inverloch, where Sarah and I had a bite to eat for breakfast before heading for the beach once again. We had booked a surfing lesson along with most of the other exchangees. After getting into our wetsuits, receiving our boards, listening to safety instructions and practising some manoeuvres on the sand, we finally hit the waves. They seemed to come in groups of 3 or 4 with a few minutes wait in between. We must of been in the water for around an hour and a half and it was great fun. I fell off many many times, as did Sarah, but managed to surf a few waves too before finally succumbing to the sea. When I managed to ride a wave it was a great feeling riding through towards the beach. Afterwards we said our goodbyes, had some lunch and headed back to Echuca, which again took us just over four hours. When we went to bed that evening we were both in pain. It felt like we had been hit in the ribs a good few times, presumably due to the fact that we kept jumping up onto the surfboards lots of times. We have only just recovered now! The pictures of me show me firstly riding the waves, then me hitting the waves and finally me smiling at the waves!