Gone on a Lucky Country

Now that I’ve spouted off about nothing much of value over the last couple of posts, I suppose I should treat you all with some beautiful pictures from the Great Ocean Road to thank you for your patience!

We left Melbourne in the afternoon and I had hoped to arrive at our lodging in Apollo Bay before nightfall; but, considering the amount of times I had Joe pull over so I could take pictures of the incredible coastline stretching away into the distance, I am shocked that we got there before midnight.  I am always so nervous about booking accommodations here in Australia – there doesn’t seem to be the same “truth in advertising” as there is in the States.  Also, instead of chain hotel/motels where you can expect a predictable experience, mostly you find independently run places where you’re not quite sure what to expect. 

Our accommodations in Apollo Bay were really quite beautiful and I recommend them without any reservation – we stayed at “Captains at the Bay” and our room had, not only a lovely dual-headed shower, but a gigantic soaking tub (and let me tell you, there was nothing better than a glass of wine and a good book while soaking in said tub).  After we got settled, we headed down to the main drag in town for some dinner – very expensive food (a la most tourist traps) and not very good quality; but we were tired and hungry and thankful for what we got.

The next day we continued on the drive with the intent of doing some sightseeing and getting more fabulous pictures.  One of my goals was to visit the Otway light station as I had seen some beautiful pictures of it online when I was researching our trip and I was not about to miss any of the sights on this drive…  It was slow going again, as I had Joe pulling off every few turn-offs for incredible photo opportunities.  We turned down the long long drive that led to the light station and started noticing cars that had been hastily pulled over on the side of the narrow road with their occupants standing by them pointing cameras up into the trees.  It was looking like something very interesting was going on... 

This time it was Joe who wanted to stop as he wisely said “there is obviously something cool going on and I would like to see it”.  I couldn't argue with that point so over we pulled and were treated to trees full of koalas.  I've seen them at Taronga Zoo; but that was nothing compared to seeing them in the wild - just hanging out in the trees.  Before we left for the trip, I got a recommendation from a co-worker about a place on the GOR where you could go to see koalas.  We had bypassed it the night before on our drive in as it was getting late; and so I had intentions of stopping to see them on our way back to Melbourne on Tuesday - it was really cool that we no longer needed to cause we were getting our own little koala experience right here without an extra trip for it!  Most of them, predictably, were sleeping so they just looked like large bumps on the branches.  There was one very active one that was eating (see above) and I attempted to take a video of it with my camera.  I was holding the camera over my head though so it came out shaky and not very good quality...  Oh well.  They were completely adorable and it was hard to rip ourselves away.  I could have spent the whole afternoon just sitting on the car and watching them.   

The light station was also worth it – it was so beautiful that it almost hurt.  Up against that crazy deep blue sky, the white of the lighthouse was blinding; but still set off by the red railing at the top.  I could have sat and taken pictures of it all day.  There was a little snack hut attached to a visitor's centre; and, outside of it, shielded from the wind by a lean-to made of tarps and sticks, was a grizzled old man singing old sea shanties.  Yep.  As if the experience was not cool enough by itself, the soundtrack of sea songs being sung in the background took this to a whole new level.  Joe and I walked down to the lighthouse itself and climbed up to the top.  I don’t feel like I can even describe the experience well enough to do it justice.  The view was crazy – water forever, cliffs below and waves smashing into foam far far below us.  The wind was so strong that it felt like you actually needed to hold on the railing for fear of being blown away.  We stayed up there far longer than was prudent and came down chilled and hungry.  Luckily, the car had been parked in the sun so we settled into the warmth with a snack and away we went again….

We knew that we wanted to see the 12 Apostles and considering that we were about half-way there, we decided to press on and see them that same day (Really, in this sentence, the 4 times I say "we" - I mean "I").  

We had gone to the store before embarking on our journey that morning and had gotten the provisions for a picnic lunch so we had supplies to last us through the rest of the afternoon.  We drove and drove, again through a landscape that was incredible in its beauty and reached the vicinity of the 12 Apostles hungry and worried about the increasing lateness of the hour.  We couldn’t find a place with picnic tables etc… for us to have our late lunch so we pressed on – finally stopping at a look-out for something called The Gorge…   We walked out to it, hoping to find picnic tables; but instead found some beautiful angry ocean, rain and a squall blowing in.  We ran back to the car, popped open the food and had an excellent picnic dinner in the car while the storm passed quickly overhead.  

After that we drove around a bit, trying in vain to see the 12 Apostles – little did I know that we needed to go to the visitor centre, park and then take a stroll out to the lookout point.  We finally figured it out after much turning around and frustration – mostly on the part of Joe who was the poor driver for the entire trip.  We got there, got settled, got some coffees and started down the path to the lookout.  We purposefully tried not to look at the rock formations till we got to the very end of the lookout point and then turned around together to take them in.  I can’t decide which was better – seeing them for myself or watching Joe see them.  I had been talking about them for days and he really didn't understand what the draw was.  When I started researching the trip, I saw picture after picture of them and so knew what we were in for.  He hadn't actually seen them yet even in picture form so getting to see his face while he took in the view was pretty amazing. 

While we were on the furthest lookout point, I happened to glance down and see that there was an echidna right on the other side of the fence from me.  Of course at the time, I thought it was a porcupine or hedgehog – I had to Google it later that night to find out what I had actually taken a picture of!  We slowly moved along the paths leading from lookout area to lookout area, taking pictures of these rock beauties from every angle imaginable.  We realised as we neared the end of the viewing area that if we waited for 15 minutes or so we would get to see the sun set on them.  There wasn’t even a decision to be made – we found a good viewing spot and settled in with about a thousand other people. 

Not to drag this otherwise upbeat post down - But I have to say, holidays are hard for me…  They became really difficult after my dad died, got even harder after my mom died and, now that we are on the other side of the world from our families, they start to feel like looming black clouds when they begin approaching.  I especially struggle with holidays that my parents really loved – Easter, Memorial Day and Christmas.  I was struggling a little on this trip because I was missing Easter back in the States - it's such a huge holiday in my family that it is hard to even explain without doing it an injustice.  So here we were - we happened to be standing on the edge of this huge country, in another hemisphere, all by ourselves watching the sun set on the most beautiful thing I had ever seen – On Easter Sunday….  It was perfect, it was sad, it was inspiring and incredible.  I only wish that I were able to share these experiences with my Mom and Dad.  My Dad especially would have loved that sight...  I know it was beautiful enough to make me cry and I think it would have done the same for him.

ANZAC day was the next day and we decided to spend the whole of it in Apollo Bay.  We read, sat on the beach for hours, ate fish and chips, napped and generally had the first “non-running around day” of the whole vacation.  It was perfect and I’m glad we decided to rest up a bit.  Tuesday morning it was up and out the door so that we could get back to Melbourne in time to return the car and head to the airport for our flight home.

It was a great holiday and my feeling is that, if you are living in Australia, you should go do this drive. Absolutely.