This is us at Airey's Inlet and in front of the Split Point Lighthouse. It is the most elegant lighthouse on the Australian coastline. Built in 1891, and towering 110 feet, it was quite the chore to get to the top, but we did it! (huffing an puffing) The unattended light still emits 4 flashes of light on a 20 second cycle, visible for 30kms at sea. The view from up top is breath taking, to say the least! You need to understand the importance of lighthouses, since there have been many boat wrecks along the shoreline, back when they were run by humans. If you go scuba diving, you can see the remains of the ship.

Here we have The Great Ocean Road. We live basically at the base of this road that winds along the coast line. If you are prone to car sickness like me, this is a tricky drive. But if you can stomach it, you can see sights like Angelsea, where the kangaroos hang out on the local golf course. You can stop at Lorne, the number one Victoria vacation hot spot. Erskine falls is also along this trek and if you hike down to the falls you are in the middle of a rainforest, what a veratile country! Of course the 12 apostles are also down this road about 3 hours, however, this time we did not go that far. We did stop to play with the waves, they are mightily powerful! I also took this shot of a decapod. It was for sale at the local fish shop, but it did come out of the ocean that morning. Goes to show you once again, the wonders of this place!

Now since I showed you the"flat" part, I had to show you the ocean. This is one of 18 million fantastic views we have. This is Jan Juc beach and a hot spot for surfers. There were a ton out performing that we could watch, but it was hard to capture a picture of them. If you have seen an 80s film called "Point Break", when the good guy (Keanu Reeves) catches the bad surfer dude (Patrick Swayze) at the end of the movie, they are at Bell's Beach, which is one over from this one. We have not been on a surf board yet, perhaps due to the fact that when we talked to some surfers after taking this picture, they had seen a shark! A couple of beaches further along the coast was evacutated theother day due to multiple shark sightings!!!

The picture on the right makes me think of the song that I teach "I Hope You Dance". There is a line in it that goes "I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean....." It is so omnious, yet at the same time completely peaceful. I know we have only been here 12 days, but I swear I will never get tired of walks along the beach in the evenings!

Here is a shot that may have you thinking. "Gee that could be Saskatchewan!". Except for the fact that the ocean is less than 3 km from this spot. Australia is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all inhabited continents. The only place worse is Antarctica. 80% and the plants and animals here exist nowhere else in the world. The reason people joke of this country being "down under" is because their seasons and constellations are backwards from ours. They have creatures that bounce, fish that climb treees and crustacean shells that are so big a man can climb inside. So you can see that there is so much to see and learn here. It was worth the 34 hours travel time (20 hours flying time) and losing January 1st (seriously that day did not exist for us) to get here!

Mr. and Mrs. Radwanski on the beach in Geelong, this is where we will teach, but we are still on summer holidays until January 29th. Temperatures are around 30 to 40 degrees Celcius. Geelong has harbour and was a port of much trading when Australia was first being formed. Australia Day is July 26th, this is the day that they celebrate Captain Phillip started a city in 1788 with 1500 people aboard his ship. However, around 700 of those people were convicts and had been sentenced to go prison. Some had only stolen a loaf of bread to feed their family. Captain Cook is said to have discovered Australia, but he went back to Britain and told them of a lush and wonderful country. When Captain Philip arrived, it was barren and dry. Those are the two seasons of Australia, winter, lush and wet, summer, barren and dry. Australia is the only nation in the world that started as a prison. 10 of the world's most poisonous snakes live here and 5 of the most lethal creatures in the world; funnel web spider, box jelly fish, blue ringed octopus, paralysis tick and the stonefish!!