Great Ocean Road

It has been a busy but amazing few days recently, I apologize for not posting in a while.

While in Melbourne at the hostel I met a few neat people, one of them being Brechd, a Belgium guy my age who was awaiting confirmation for his internship. I told him about me driving the Great Ocean Road later in the week and invited him along, and after a few emails and phone calls he said he could join. We took the shuttle bus out to the airport and I got the keys to my Hyundai Getz, a tiny car that had great mileage but no pickup when I put the pedal to the floor. We took off westward and after a few wrong turns made it onto the tourist route of the Great Ocean Road. It turned out to be great since it was quite a long drive to Port Campbell where we stayed Wednesday night. The drive was absolutely amazing on Wednesday as we were right along the edge of the coast and at times literally on the edge of a 100 foot drop to the ocean below. At one point there was a 20 minute stop where construction crews were working ahead and a worker came around to each car letting us know they were moving "rocks off the road that had fallen from the cliffs above"...... We drove by these rocks that to me looked more like boulders, some a few feet in diameter. We got to Port Campbell just as it was getting dark and walked around the town which turned out to be a few small motels, restaurants and gas station. Very much a tourist town.

Yesterday we drove to a site nearby; the Loch Ard Gorge, a small inlet where the ship Loch Ard crashed back in the late 1800's and only 2 people survived. I'm not quite sure why it was named what it was since a whole slew of other shipwrecks occured in the same region, but nonetheless it was a neat inlet that gave way to a great beach that was accessible from a set of stairs at the top of the steep cliff. A short hike in the area brought us to a blowhole that was created from the ocean eroding an underground tavern that led to a spot inland that caved in and was basically a plunging hole in the ground. A couple other beaches along the way were quite neat but definitely not swimmable based on the size of the waves and the rocky shore.

Our next stop was at the 12 apostles lookout, a point in the coast where you can see freestanding rock structures that have formed from the erosion of the sea waters. Some have toppled over from the ongoing wear and tear but a few are left standing and make for a picturesque scene with cliffs and and endless ocean in the background.

In the afternoon we drove to Cape Otway Park where the oldest lighthouse in Australia is located and toured around the area which included the telegraph station turned schoolhouse and WWII lookout bunker. The drive in to the Lighthouse was neat since we stopped to see what other cars at the side of the road were looking at and found Koala's nestled in the Eucalyptus tree's beside the road eating their leaves or just sleeping in the branches. They're such a funny animal because they have a soft, goofy look to them and were very photogenic when we all started snapping pictures. As we drove back to Port Campbell we raced against the clock and made it back just in time to see the sunset over horizon and another clear evening.

This morning we got on the road quite early to get the car back in time to the airport but the guy working at our hostel overestimated our travel time by about an hour so I had a long waiting time at the Melbourne airport before my flight to Perth. After a 4 hour flight I arrived in Perth and was welcomed by a friend of a friend, Janice who has been nothing short of an amazing host giving me an evening tour of the city and cooking me (something I have truly missed) a homecooked meal. She lives in the suburbs right next to Perth and are going to tour around the ciy and the coastal beaches for the next couple days and see the Aussie Football game I have long awaited tomorrow afternoon. It is great here in Perth since I am back in warm weather where Melbourne and the Great Ocean road was very cold both day and night.