The nice thing about Australia is that it seems like there’s at least one coffee shop per street corner, and this has been especially true this trip with all of our early wake-up activities. Today, we walked from our hotel over the pedestrian bridge, and through a small tunnel to Flinders Street, the main street we’ve been walking along and past throughout the trip so far. We stopped right on the corner, to pick up some Walkers Doughnuts and coffee. We all went for black coffee today (I’ve been sticking to flat white coffee since it’s a staple down here, but… not today!) and grabbed a few different kinds of ring doughnuts, and glazed/jam-filled doughnuts, before heading back to the hotel. Today was a tour day, so another day to whip out the bigger cameras and prepare for a long car ride. We would be heading to the Twelve Apostles area of Melbourne, about three hours away, with little stops here and there along the way as well to see other tourist sites.
When the bus arrived, from a company called Bunyip Tours, we clamored aboard with our gear, and sat down for the ride. The only problem was that my legs didn’t fit! Jon is also very tall (we’re nearly the same height), and he didn’t really fit either. The driver promised we were dropping off one other passenger, and that this would empty up the “front row” which had more room, and also offered me the seat next to him at the front of the bus. This would end up being our seating for the next day or so as we began our journey south with about fifteen other passengers.
Our first stop was for coffee and tea, and it didn’t take very long before we were meeting other passengers. Most were actually somewhat reserved, but a girl from Switzerland, Lea, came right up and introduced herself. She’s backpacking around Australia, and for the past three months has been meandering the coastline, enjoying the beach life and surfing. Lea at one point mentioned she was 20, that this was her gap year of travel, and soon it would be time to go back to University and grow up. I wish more people did this, saved for this, planned travel in their life to this extent. This is something, now that I’m older, I wish I had done and could have benefited from. There are companies like WorkAway that even take care of most of the planning and living for students just graduating high school if they’re willing to work a minimum number of hours a week for room and board, and I can’t recommend them enough!
Lea would be a constant for us throughout the whole day, flitting from group to group like a butterfly, it was fun to have a random addition from time to time! We finished up our coffee, and headed for The Great Ocean Road
The Great Ocean Road was originally built in the 1900’s, and finished by early in the 1930’s, meant to be a way to stimulate the economy for returning soldiers, the roadway too much longer than expected and employed thousands where probably they were not needed, but the resulting road is extremely nice and has become a tourist attraction due to the sweeping views of the ocean that result.
The Great Ocean Road
We would spend the day going from place to place, stopping here and there to take pictures and head down to the beach. We did get our 7th continent picture! I’ll be posting this later in the trip once we’ve had some time to get it off the camera (Jen’s camera).
We stopped all along the road over the next few hours, making our way down to The Twelve Apostles (which is not really aptly named and has no historical or religious significance but was renamed to this due to the interest it draws from tourists). I don’t mean to downplay the visuals, it’s a beautiful place, but it does seem like a lot of this day-trip was built just to give tourists something to do.
The Twelve Apostles, comprised of the towers at sea.
The Twelve Apostles
I did have a good time, and at Kennett River Holiday Park, a campground along the way, I even got to have a few birds climb all over me and land my my shoulders and head. I didn’t have any food, but they were very friendly anyway!
We also stopped by the Cape Otway Lighthouse for a bit of lunch and fun with strong winds (Jen and Jon played in the wind, which was nearly strong enough to pretend you’re sitting in a chair while still standing up), and took our Seven Continents picture in a small cove where the waves quickly washed away our “7” that Jen drew in the sand, and had us running to keep from getting wet.
Cape Otway Lighthouse
The inside of Cape Otway Lighthouse, looking out!
Jon and Jen playing in the wind
The inlet where we took our “7 Continents” picture, soon to be uploaded!
Free Range Hobo, both having been on all Seven Continents!
Finding the perfect spot on the beach (and then nearly getting wet!)
I will upload pictures of this later, the hotel where we are currently (I’m days behind now and I know that!) in New Zealand has terrible upload speeds to the point that I can’t add more pictures. We finished off the day at a burger place we came across called Betty’s Burgers, and we wouldn’t recommend it! From burgers, to fries, to specialty sauces (like ketchup) you had to pay for separately… we could have skipped that experience!
