Road trip! The best way to get four people from Sydney to Melbourne is a coastal road trip. We took three days to drive 1000 km down the wrong left side of the road and it was quite the adventure. I bumped my right elbow against the window whenever I turned right, the windshield wipers whenever I tried to signal and backing up confused me greatly. It was fun to learn and by day two my brain had adjusted.

Our first day we stopped at Pebbly Beach for a walk and a swim, and we saw several wild kangaroos! That alone made the drive worth it. It was a gorgeous beach with ombre tan sand and turquoise waves, and the little kangaroos hopped along nibbling the grass.

We introduced the Diggins to hostel living that night and stayed at an odd little place in Bateman’s Bay.

We saw a lot of road work the next few days with speed limits of 40km per hour in many places. Australia is experiencing an intense heatwave, but the coast is spared and it even lightly rained for a full day. Our lunch picnics were quite scenic. The road sign would mention a vista and we would turn off expecting an immediate view. Instead the signs would continue and we would drive up several miles into the mountains for an ocean view. Beautiful, but we were hungry.

We spent our second night at a much nicer place in a tiny town near Metung. It had a single restaurant that sat right on the water and a cute echidna that lived in the orchard.

Our final day we drove into Melbourne and survived their rush hour, odd hook turns and six-point intersections. We returned the rental car with exactly two minutes to spare. The parking slip was time-stamped.