Gippsland - where land meets the waters

Everyone sat in position with their seatbelts on, the engines roared and the van taxied trough the city roads and took off on the freeway. Hunger simulated the urge to stop for food and spicy Indian food at the Tandoori cottage was a welcome break. Everyone seemed to be in a laid back mood with droopy eyes. We reached the Kick back cottages at around 3.00 AM in the morning t0 find the keys of the cottage left at the door steps. We occupied the cottages 6 and 8. Gracian, Saravanan and I occupied the smaller of the two cottages and the others occupied the larger one. A wonderful night’s silent sleep was broken by a phone call from Prashanth and we were glad to hear such remarkable words in the morning. Fearing more such threats from Prashanth, we were all ready in a jiffy and went to the cottage 8 only to see Prashanth still sleeping under a heavy blanket. Sriram and I set to wander out in the morning and as we stepped out of the house, we could hear the numerous orders for coffee, tea and milk shakes. We went to the nearest bakery to buy some bread and brought some milk and other ingredients to make some coffee. Prashanth was unimpressed with this splendid idea of ours. The 90 mile beach was the nearest place where we all decided to go in the morning.

The sight of the waves hitting the sands was a welcome break and no one could resist running on the wet sands of the beach. Weird feats were tried on the shores and the one which Saravanan tried wouldn’t be forgotten for a long time. He came charging like a bull and came to a sudden halt by burrowing his head into the sands. The usual nagging by Babitha for some solo pictures of her continued through out the day and Prashanth had to work hard with his camera to create solo pictures. The loss of a mobile phone din't bother Prashanth very much and it was not long before he was contemplating on the newer choices of mobile phones that he had. We also had a chance to drive into one of the wineries and taste the exotic red wines. Sriram bought a bottle of wine which was as sweet as sugar syrup and this took him to great heights as it flowed down his throat into his belly.
Long drives and playing cards apart from eating were the only others things that we could do that day. The night was filled with fun and laughter and Saravanan was the epicenter of all this. Gracian who was always at the receiving end never lacked a laugh. This was the time when Aliza decided never to join us again for a trip.
We checked out of the cottages at 10.30 AM and headed straight to the subway and the KFC. The next destination was Buchan caves. The formation inside the caves was wonderful and worth taking some pictures. We had to crawl through the narrow passages through the rocks and reach the huge cleared area inside the rocks. We could see clear water and other structures that took millions of years to form. There was no other place to go and so we entrusted this job to the GPS who guided us to Mt. Nowa Nowa and after a bumpy and exciting drive we reached the place on the top of the mount. The whole land below was looking green covered by the tree canopies and the camera lenses were focussed and shutters just clicked away. We drove back to Melbourne and Madras Banyan tree was the place we had our dinner. Sumptuous amounts of food was ordered and wasted too. We all reached home tired and weary and just had the energy to crawl into the beds and sleep.
The 8 trip goers who adjusted themselves in the white small van along with the taking GPS are:
Aliza, Babitha, Ezhil, Gracian, Prashanth, Sriram, Saravanan and Sunil