The Great Ocean Road

July 31

7:15am Sydney time

I got up this morning and tried not to wake up the guys in my dorm, I'm not sure why though. They always turned on lights when I was sleeping. I just didn't want to be rude. Unfortunately I had to climb down the beds so I think I woke them up anyway. Oh well. 

I was supposed to be picked up at 7:05am but the bus didn't get there until 7:15am. I wasn't sure what I was looking for. It ended up being a big van bus thing that said Wildlife Tours across it. 

The driver got out and checked me off and told me there were only 6 people on the trip and that there was plenty of space in the back for big bags. It's kinda nice it's a small group. 

The driver seems enthusiastic and good. We drove past Collins street which I had walked down but I hadn't gone on this part. He said it is nick named the Paris of Melbourne. It looked a lot like Paris style buildings so I can see why. He also said they are trying to nickname another part of the city the New York quarter. Mars was talking about how someone told her it looked like New York but that she was scared to take me in case it was disappointing. Oh Mars. Haha. 

We have an hour and a half drive to our first destination today.

There is someone from Argentina, Germany, the Netherlands, France, and the Czech Republic. The guides name is Campbell and he is from Western Australia... Which is huge so I'm not really sure exactly where yet.

8:47am Sydney time

Just starting the Great Ocean Road! B100! We drive the whole part of it! Were heading to Point Addis. We are also passing Bells Beach. We aren't allowed to go to Bells Beach because tour buses are banned from there because the surfers complained that there was too much litter from the tourists and they weren't giving back.

The Great Ocean Road is divided into 3 parts. The surf coast, the green coast, and the shipwreck coast.

9:33am Sydney time 

Fun fact: the First English settler to settle in Melbourne was Batman. It was called Batmania for 18 months and then it changed. Lol. I was wondering why there was a batman street and monuments. 

Point Addis is pretty. You could see the light house in the distance which we are now heading to. There was a guy surfing out there. I honestly don't know what the temperature is but it's cold. Cam said he probably has a 4mm thick wetsuit on which costs around $400! It's cold enough that I think he's crazy and I also probably need to buy warmer clothes. 

Point Addis was mostly just coast line. You could see the limestone cliffs. There was a swell so the surf was there. Still pretty but not one of the most beautiful views I've seen on this trip. 

Here we had biscuits and tea or coffee. Tea please! The warm cup felt so nice on my cold hands. 

There are a lot of eucalyptus trees here. There are over 700 types. There is an oil in them and koalas eat 7 types of them. The oil makes it so that bush fires start. It also spreads fire to create more trees I guess. The nickname for eucalyptus trees is gum tree. On hot days the trees dry out and if wind gusts through it starts a fire. 

Victoria has some of the worst bush fires in Australia. One happened 4 years ago and 168 people died. They didn't have strict evacuation rules and they are now trying to adopt something similar to what Colorado does because they haven't had any deaths. 

Australia is heading toward the SE Asia plate. They are leaving Tasmania behind. Tasmania actually used to join up with Australia. It doesn't anymore. There is now a large gap between them and it is pretty dangerous water because its shallow and it is where the south and pacific oceans come together so there is a lot of swell. There were over 800 ship wrecks... I'm not sure what span of time that was. But either way, it's a lot. 

The light house was built to try to stop ship wrecks... sounds like pretty unsuccessfully. Round the Twist and Salam namaste were filmed at the light house. Mad Max, with Mel Gibson, was also filmed around here and we saw a house he stayed in while it was filming.

There is also a house on a pole. It was 1.6 million and they used it for a home rental. $999 for a one bedroom house for 2 nights. It over looks the ocean. 

In 1880 Melbourne was one of the wealthiest cities. The guy who creates it had gone to San Fransisco and liked the costal road so he thought that Australia should have one as well. They built the road for the economy as well. The sign is a tribute to the men and women who built the road. It took 14 years to build the 70km. The inspiration is from California. The road started building in 1919, so it's not that old! It never used to be completely connected either. 

10:36am Sydney time 

We just stopped on the side of the road and saw a whale super close to the shore. Pretty cool! 

On the Great Ocean Road, none of the larger franchises are allowed to build here. It's in the law actually and it is helpful for protecting the small independent businesses as well as preventing garbage. Lorne is the little town. It has the largest buildings on the Great Ocean Road. 

10:55am Sydney time 

Koala is an aboriginal word. From the Kori (?) group. Koala means no drink, no water. They spend all their time in trees and don't drink very much. 

The road is very windy but I figure out how to describe how it's different from Cameron Highlands or going to Bromo. I think it's definitely wider and the turns aren't as tight or as often. But, obviously the view is way more beautiful with large cliffs on one side and the blue beautiful ocean on the other. I guess in that sense it is more open as well. Ha, we also are driving way faster and in a much larger bus. That makes a huge difference.

Even though the view is exactly the same with cliff and ocean it's like ridiculously picturesque. Around every bend its like oh I could take a photo here... And here... And here too! The way the sun is shining on the water and the coastline is very nice as well. It makes the cliffs glow and the water sparkle. 

I actually think this is a bit more disorienting because of how fast we are driving! And really we probably aren't even going that fast but it's definitely faster than we drove in Asia. 

When we stand at some of the look out points you can hear the waves crashing against the rocks just off the shore. 

11:55am Sydney time 

"I'm a koala, not a bear". Koalas are marsupials (have a pouch). Koalas used to be on the ground and in competition with the wallabies and kangaroos. They were the slowest animal and ended up moving to a tree. They are the only animal that can survive on Eucalyptus leaves which if we ate it would result in death ha. Note to self- do not eat this! 

Koalas sleep about 20 hours a day. They need bacteria in their stomach to eat these leaves and be able to digest them. It is passed on through the mother from generation to generation. Baby koalas are baby jelly bean size and pink and look exactly like koalas. The mom will make a concoction mix of milk and poo which puts the bacteria in the stomach of the baby. Without the bacteria they will starve themselves and die.

They weigh around 17kilos and are larger than the other koalas in the northern part. They live only on the eastern side of Australia. They do sometimes fall out of the trees and die because they weigh a lot for the beaches. They look like large fluff balls. They are only awake for about 20 minutes at a time when they are awake.

The male mating call is funny sounding. I only heard it from Cam though so I don't know what it sounds like for real. But essentially it sounds like a longer sound of the men hacking their lungs out in Nepal. The females (from Cams mouth) sound like louder guinea pig grunts. The men kinda force themselves on the women I guess.

We are at Kennett River, Koala Cove. There were a bunch of birds that flew out of the trees and landed on people. I skipped that part. They're pretty though. 

1pm Sydney time 

We stopped in Apollo for lunch. There really isn't anything to do here. But, a sandwich with chicken, cheese, cucumber, tomato... Fricking amazing. There are even little fountains to fill up your water bottle... First world luxuries! 

We are leaving the surf coast now. Up next, The Otway Ranges! It's more inland. It saved money for them to build it through this area. It's also a change of scenery... Jungle! 

1:48pm Sydney time

We just stopped at Maits Forest. It's a rainforest. It is very different from a lot of the other rainforests I have been in. Definitely no need to worry about tigers stalking us. There are huge trees that are the second biggest trees in the world (they are eucalyptus trees but not the koala liking kind) second to the secoyas in the redwood forest in CA. The trunks are HUGE! There aren't very many animals in this forest but there is the black carnivorous snail. Crazy! We also saw some of the eucalyptus trees were starting to grow bulbs which is actually a fungus and will slowly spread and kill the tree. 

Australia is very green. One of the girls was commenting on it and said she wasn't expecting that and that she thinks its because of winter. I guess I never really thought about it and just assume it would be green here. Maybe it isn't normally? It's really beautiful though. 

The area we are driving through now is full of rolling hills and many sheep and cows or water buffalo (too far away to tell) inhabit the space. I guess this is what northern Tasmania and New Zealand are supposed to look like. I don't know why but its kinda what I picture Ireland to be like as well.

2:45pm Sydney time 

This used to be an inland sea and this is why the cliffs are limestone. This is the shipwreck portion of the road. 

The Twelve Apostles

There are not 12 of them. They are skinny towers of rock. They used to be called the sow and piglets. 

I did a helicopter flight to be able to fly over them. When at the Tweleve Apostles... Ha. It was $95 for a 10 minute flight. Normally, it is $145 but with Wild Life Tours and Campbell, I got a discount. Yey discounts! But either way I would have done it. Not really thinking about money when it's stuff like that. Instead of Nike just do it it's twelve apostles (or whatever thing) just do it! 

I'm really glad I did it. It was a very different view than it was from the ground. You could actually see the damage from erosion better I thought. I was in the front/side of the helicopter which was perfect. I got some good photos and video. I think they may have weighed me before I got on but I'm not sure. I should have asked to see how much it said I weighed. 

I had agreed with Campbell that I would either be at the bus at 3:45pm or that he would take everyone down the road and come back and get me at 4pm. I did make it by 3:45pm so that was good. After I got off the helicopter I think I had 20 minutes to roam around before we had to leave for the next view point. 

I booked it from the helicopter pad to the entrance to the park. Walking briskly, only stopping to take a selfie with the welcome to the Tweleve apostles park sign. Made my way around taking photos and trying to soak in the view. People are so slow its annoying sometimes. But, I got my selfies taken and my probably not award winning shots of the apostles as well. The sun wasn't in the best place although it did make for some pretty cool sun shining on things shots. It's just the lighting was really harsh so it was more shadows than colors and details of the actual rocks. 

3:45pm Sydney time 

Gold was discovered in 1841. 10,000 people a month were moving to Melbourne in around 1851. In 1878, the Loch Ard Gorge came down to Victoria from Europe. There is an island about 65 km away. It's harder for them to get through and they call it "threading the needle". They got too close to the coast and scratched the stones. Tom and Eva survived. Tom went out and rescued Eva and they swam 90 minutes to the shore. (And titanic...). Eva has early signs of hypothermia. Tom went to the gorge of the cave on the beach (I went down here) and they took off their clothes and huddled together to keep warm and survive. Tom heads toward Melbourne and he walked into a little trail and see cattle prints. He follows the track and hits the farm. They went to save the Irish girl, Eva. It takes them ages to find her because she found a hiding spot when she woke up alone. Tom asked Eva to marry her via letter and she said no. 5 of her family drowned in the ship wreck so she decided to head back to Isle. Tom had an adrenaline rush and won a bravery award. He became a skipper and survived 3 more shipwrecks. 

New Zealand spinach. This is all over Australia and we tried it. It's thicker and pretty salty. They used to use this on the boats if they had scurvy.

4:42pm 

We just stopped at another view point for the apostles. There was a "salt and pepper shaker" one, as well as a few others. It's really beautiful. The limestone and the ocean mix and make a beautiful swirl of colors for photographs. It's very relaxing as well to listen to the rumble of the waves hitting the rocks. Very cool experience. I'm sad that I don't have that much time to be able to sit and just take in the scenery. It's really go go go. But hey, how else am I supposed to fit everything in? 

Campbell said that in the past 4 years they have built a Great Ocean trail for backpackers. So it is 91km and you just put on your pack and go for a hike. There are accommodations every 10km or so. This would be cool to do with Aimee one day. The views of the twelve apostles, although not really comparable, kinda reminded me of when Aimee and I were in the UP of Michigan at Picture Rock. Similar type of thing just this is on a much larger scale I think.

At this stop I was also able to go down on the beach and there was this little cove and caves and stuff. It was again very pretty. This is supposedly the place where Eva and Tom washed up on the shore and slept that evening.

Later the next day when I have time to write...

Next up is the London Bridge.

1990. There are 4 people standing on the London Bridge. 2 leave and a huge wave comes and destroys the bridge so the couple is stranded there. The couple notstranded calls  000 (911) and they send a helicopter but it can't get there for another 5 hours. They figured they couldn't leave them there for 5 hours so the emergency corresponder calls up Channel 7, a large news station in Australia. He offers them the story if they can go in and rescue the couple. So the news team goes and they circle above the couple for 20 minutes trying to get footage for the news story. The couple starts to get angry and finally they land down (not safe) and get the couple. When they were back on land and safe they wanted to do an interview and the man said he didn't want to be part of an interview. The camera man was persistent and kept asking questions so the guy told him he didn't want to because he told his boss he was sick. The camera man started filming and the couple got in the car and left. Later they found out the real reason the couple didn't want an interview was because they were having an affair. 

Well, after telling this whole long entertaining story, Campbell said it is actually not even true but that the tourism industry tells everyone this. The couple is actually married and is still married today. That's tourism for you. Although I never thought tour guides would be lying to me to make a better story! 

We stopped and got to see the London Bridge. It's nice. It's not a bridge anymore though. (Nailed that name, ha). 

Then we drove to a little town called Petersburg for a little look at another beach. Nothing too exciting. There was a bathroom there that we all used.

After that we drove a little up the road and stopped at the Bay of Islands. The sun was setting at this point and it was really beautiful to see. The colors were spectacular. Oranges, reds, yellows. And it was setting behind the rock which made it even more beautiful because it looked like they were radiating color. 

I think that touring Australia in the winter is good. It's low season so there are less people around. Although at the twelve apostles park and around that area for a few stops there were a million Asian tourists. But, at the Bay of Islands we were really the only ones there and even some of our other view points during the day. Plus, it's nice the tour is so small because there's less of us so we can get through things quicker and more efficiently. 

We then drove to Warrnambool which is where our accommodation for the evening was. First, we stopped in the city for food. In Australia only 20,000 people have to live in an area before it can be called a city. It's pretty much just a small town where old people go to retire but the houses (as we saw the next morning) are really nice so there is definitely money here.

Speaking of money, Australia is one of the most expensive countries in the world! 

Anyway, for dinner there were a lot of Indian and Asian options. Clearly not something I wanted. So, 4 of us ended up at McDonalds. I got chicken nuggets (6 piece) and fries. They serve their chicken nuggets with sweet and sour sauce... Seriously. Sweet and sour sauce? Australia, you are not Asia! The sauce was also a brown color, not red. It wasn't bad though. I seriously can't wait to get back home and have ranch dressing as an option. Yum. In the same building as the McDonalds there was a McCafe which was Starbucks like. It had pastries and drinks and was all fancy. We don't have that... Ha. 

The guy from Czech Republic is 19 and he has been in Australia for a month. He was in Dubai for 5 days and he will go to Bkk and Shanghai, each for 5 days too. The girl from the Netherlands is an English teacher and she is here for holiday for a month. The girl from Germany is doing an internship with BP which is who she works for at home. Then, the girl from Argentina said she has been traveling for 2 years. She hasn't really been traveling though. People do this all the time. They've been living and working abroad. Not traveling. They travel on the weekends or get up and move and work in a new place. But she's been in Australia and New Zealand the whole time working and goes back to Argentina in a week. The girl from France has been in Australia for a year and was living and working. They both were talking about how they are sad they have to leave because they have worked so hard on improving their English and it isn't perfect and they are worried they will lose it. The French girl wants to move to England to keep practicing it.

The hostel we stayed in was actually very nice. It was small and homey like too. It was pretty much just our group. Everyone went to bed really early but I wasn't tired. So, I wasted time showering which at first was really an unpleasant experience because my body was so old that the hot water just didn't even feel nice. By 10pm everyone was asleep and the lights were out. I had my trusty head lamp and was able to do some writing. I did start a separate journal that is personal for me about how I feel about certain aspects of coming home that I want to keep more private. It has been good to be able to write things down because they I stress less and it helps me with my train of thought. I've come to the conclusion that there is no use in stressing when I can't contol the outcome. Just gotta take it as it comes and deal with it then. 

Today was really good. We saw a lot and Campbell is a really great tour guide. I still feel like I'm learning a lot which I obviously love.