The Great Ocean Road: Day 3

Easter Sunday, we woke at Herb's Hus well rested having spent the night in possibly the comfiest and cosiest bed I've ever slept in. The bathroom was pretty spectacular too - so beautiful, light and airy.

A delicious breakfast followed: muesli with yoghurt, home-made bread and cookies, fruit, and plenty of coffee. Then before we knew it we were back on the road.

Our first stop for the day was Port Fairy - very cute name, but not a lot going on.

We took a quick walk along the riverbank where there were some beautiful houses and hotels, and then jumped back in the car to continue our journey to our next booked hotel in Colac, which is a town on the way back to Melbourne. It soon became clear however that all of the towns along the Princes Highway were completely dead and not worth a visit. Plan B came into action and we decided to head straight to St Kilda, where we had some accommodation booked thanks to Dave's old school friend, Simon, stopping at Melbourne's open range zoo: Werribee.

Included in the price of the entry ticket is a safari tour across the grassy plains of the 225 hectare zoo where you come in close proximity to hippos, giraffes, zebras and the like. The highlight of this was probably seeing a hippo mark it's territory: that is, having a shit, and spraying it everywhere with his tail. Lovely. After this, we walked around the rest of the zoo. Typically, all of the animals were hiding and we barely saw anything but, luckily, we did get to have our photo taken with a very friendly kangaroo, which made Dave's day as he is constantly going on about them.

We arrived in St Kilda at about 5pm and booked into yet another hostel. This time we were in our own double room, which was okay, but a bit smelly as it was next to a toilet, and backpackers seem to have the biggest poos: it must be their bad diet. Simon (Dave's friend) kindly booked us tickets to go with him and his friends to see Arj Barker of Flight of the Concords fame at the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

After a yummy and bargainous $9.50 dinner at a restaurant called Thai Power we headed into the city for a few drinks and the show. Arj Barker is possibly the least funny comedian I've ever come across, I must have laughed once throughout the whole show, and looking back, even that joke wasn't very funny: something to do with snakes just being one long neck...?!

And back to the hostel it was for some sleep and the last day of our long weekend (made a little longer by Jetstar cancelling our morning flight back to Sydney, of course)...

The Great Ocean Road: Day 2

Despite sharing our fairly cold room with a couple of Irish backpackers we had a pretty good nights sleep and got up at 9am after about 10 hours sleep. After queuing for a few hours for the shower (considering the other guests were backpackers and thus have no grasp of personal hygiene they seemed to all be well acquainted with the shower) we managed to check out. On the way out we our our first 'Flamin Galah' since being in Australia, and thought this deserved a picture of it's own...

We headed back into Apollo Bay for some breakfast in a little seafront cafe. As we'd grown a little tired of the 6 existing music tracks on my USB drive when we got back to the car we transferred the songs from Cats onto it so we could listen to that as well. I'm glad to say we now both know all of the songs in the album word for word- in fact I don't know why we're bothering to go and watch it next month- we know the storyline like experts and could pretty much re enact the whole thing in the front room should we wish.

By the second day we were starting to get a bit sick of the never ending sun kissed beaches with the mountainous backdrops stretching into the horizon, and were longing for cold and windy Brighton beach. When we hit Port Campbell we stopped for a while to see the 12 Apostles which is, by all accounts, the main reason people to the Great Ocean Road in the first place.

Essentially these are, or at least were, 12 large rocks poking out of the sea in interesting shapes and named appropriately- 'Razor Back', 'Salt and Pepper Shakers' and the 'Question Mark' to name but a few. I say 'were' because originally there were 12 but over the past few years erosion has taken its course and now they are down to 9. They've stuck with the name 12 Apostles though, I suspect because they can't be bothered to change all their stationary, merchandise and marketing material every time one of them falls down.

Anyway, Lucia and I are now very knowledgeable on the 12 Apostles because we took a helicopter ride over them and our pilot was imparting these useless nuggets of information. It was the first time I've ever been in a helicopter and it was fun- I am considering a career change! The picture below was taken from the 'bird'

We then went to grab lunch in Port Campbell, passing 'Bay of Martyrs', 'Bay of Islands' and the formation known as 'London Bridge' (picture on the left) on the way, which was a lovely little costal town with a lot of character but the sort of place you got bored of after a couple of minutes.

Our never ending quest to find a weather forecast in a newspaper continued. All the papers I read could tell me the times that all of the planets were going to rise and fall and what the weather is due to be like that day but nothing beyond that. It also devoted large parts of its forecast to what the weather was like yesterday, which at best is a little pointless because it is usually too late to change your plans at that stage. And anyway, that's not a forecast. It's an observation.

After Port Campbell we went to a hostel in Warnambool which I managed to book last minute at risk of us sleeping rough for the night if not. Lucia was not amused when I told her that we would be sharing a room with up to 8 other backpackers, and even less amused when we turned up and they tried to put us in a room with 16. We decided that it would be better to take a risk with the other hostels, hotels or B&Bs in the town so cancelled our reservation.

We toured around Warnambool for about 30 minutes going into everywhere with a bed, which was either full or way too expensive. We were just about to give up and set up camp in the back of the car when we stumbled across a lovely B&B called Herb's Hus. We spent a couple of hours relaxing, eating the home cooked goodies and watching the rugby (good old Herb had sky sports), before heading out to Breakers which served mediocre and somewhat overpriced food, then going home and dozing in the nicest bed I've ever slept in.

The Great Ocean Road: Day 1

The journey to Melbourne went relatively smoothly: our alarm went off at the hideously early time of 4:45am for our 6:40am flight and before we knew it we had touched down at the airport. Luckily we had managed to score a good deal with our car hire through a friend of Dave's who works at Avis: not only did we not have to pay the discriminatory extra $27 a day for being under 25, we were also given an upgrade - a bad boy Holden Cruze with more gadgets than you can shake a stick at. The road trip began...

Our first stop was Geelong for some breakfast, the first large town on the way to the Great Ocean Road. We had underestimated the power of Good Friday though - everything was shut and the whole town was dead. It also started pouring with rain just as we parked the car...not a good sign! Breakfast was a quick croissant from the only place that was open and then we were back on the road.

The Great Ocean Road actually starts in Torquay so we decided this would be our next destination. Torquay is also the surf capital of Australia and when we arrived, we discovered that the Rip Curl World Surf Championships were being held over the Easter weekend at Bells Beach and apparently all sorts of surf heroes like Kelly Slater were hanging around the town...we didn't see anyone famous, not that I would be able to spot a famous surfer even if my life depended on it...Torquay is a typical beachside town, lots of surf shops and cafes and not a lot else. We did find a gorgeous little hippy art gallery/cafe called Peace Kitchen where we had a delicious "vego" lunch (i.e. vegetarian - Australians shorten all their words with an "o" which is an incredibly annoying habit) surrounded by Avatar-style artwork.

After lunch we drove to Bells Beach to watch some surfing...although the beach was beautiful, it was not worth the $117 parking fine we landed ourselves with. In typical Owen-family style, Dave is writing a letter of complaint...!

Time was ticking and we needed to get to the hostel in Apollo Bay that we had booked ourselves into for the night. We stopped a few times to take photos as the scenery was breathtaking - I can understand why it's meant to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world.

The hostel was comfortable and the best part: there were two cute and friendly little cats there, making it quite a homely place to stay.

We spent a little time settling ourselves in and then walked to Apollo Bay to have a wander round, a drink and some dinner.

With a tummy full of food and red wine, and having been up since 4:45am, bed was beckoning...

Our Kinder Easter Egg

When I was younger, the highlight of my Easter was the giant Kinder Easter Egg that mummy and daddy bought for mine and my brother's chocolate treat. For the past few years though it's been impossible to buy them - Woolworths, Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury - you name the shop, we've been there looking for them. So, you can imagine my excitement when I came across one in Target, a cheapo shop in Sydney. Without a moment's hesitation, I bought one and stashed it away for a rainy day.

Today was that rainy day. And oh did it pour. But for all the wrong reasons. It seems that not only is Australian Cadbury's chocolate minging, but so is Australian Kinder chocolate. I took a few bites and just couldn't eat anymore (don't worry though, it didn't go to waste, Dave managed to wolf it down in about 5 minutes) I actually almost cried. Not even the little toy, an aeroplane shaped sellotape dispenser, makes my disappointment any better. Whoever is reading this, please send me a Kinder egg??

Mosquito, mosquito, wherefore art thou Mosquito?

Mosquitoes have actually become the bane of my life. Not because I get bitten by them you see because they don't really seem to like me that much, I get a bite here and there but nothing to bother me too much, but because they love Dave (they obviously have bad taste). He becomes a crazy man when one is in the room, particularly at night.

Last night, for example, I was happily sleeping when he jumps out of bed and says: "Lucia, there's a mosquito in the room, I'm going to have to turn the light on so cover your eyes." Uggggh I'm trying to sleep...the light goes on, Dave bounces around the room for about 15 minutes trying to find it, the light goes off, back to sleep. If you haven't been disturbed enough to now be fully awake, that is.

Perhaps the most annoying thing about this little ritual Dave has is that he will then moan in the morning about having had a bad nights sleep - as if he is the only one!! Men, hey?? Why he can't turn the light on OUTSIDE the bedroom so the mosquito then flies out in to the lounge is beyond me....that way everyone is happy - I don't get disturbed sleep, Dave gets to murder the mosquito, we wake up in the morning biteless and well-rested. Makes too much sense to ever happen doesn't it?!

Not Quite Kasparov

Since I’ve left Stanford Road there has been a gaping void in my life left by the absence of Tom, and specifically, our twice-weekly ritual of playing chess over a pint of beer at the Chimney House. Or, in fact, any pub which both had a chess set and that Tom had not been barred from. Both of these factors severely limited our choice of pubs. Anyway, to keep me occupied on the 24 hour flight over I brought with me my computerised ‘Kasparov Chess’ set which has kept me occupied many a lonely night since. I was delighted to find this provides a more challenging game than Tom did, and certainly provides a more balanced insight into any moral conundrums I happened to be facing at work or in life. It also doesn’t shaft me on the ‘loser buys the drinks’ principle. I have also started playing with Wayne, a guy at work, during lunch. Wayne provides better conversation than the computer, but is annoyingly good and tends to win a little too often. He has lent me his ‘Chess Player’s Bible’ which, whilst not an exhilarating read, is bearable and the thought of thrashing Tom when I return makes it worth pursuing. Unfortunately, despite all this effort I don’t seem to be getting any better. I can tell you when you can use En Passant, comment on the positional considerations of the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Defence and tell you why you should use a Fianchettoed Bishop. Theoretically, I could give a Grand Master a good game. I can talk a great game, but can’t seem to play one. It seems I’m the chess equivalent of a back-seat-driver.

Another random but lovely Tuesday

Tuesday seems to be becoming our day of doing something random but lovely in the evening to break up the week a bit. This Tuesday Dave came up with the rather romantic idea of going for dinner followed by a long coastal walk from Bondi to Bronte. So after he had finished work, this is exactly what we did!

We made our way to a little tapas restaurant called the Rum Diaries in Bondi, which Dave had been to before and knew I would love. Indeed I did. Everything we had was absolutely delicious: a selection of homemade breads with dips, botanical bliss balls (carrot, beetroot and courgette mixed with brown rice - sounds weird but delicious), smoked fishcakes, pumpkin wedges, and Spanish beef stew.

It doesn't seem like much written down but we were both so full by the time we had finished! Dave even treated me to a cocktail - I chose something called Black and Blue, which was a massive mistake as it was just puuuure alcohol - I took one sip and Dave had to drink the rest.

After dinner we trotted across the road to the House of Chocolates where we chose a selection of yummy choccies (we spent $15 - oopsie) and munched them for dessert on our way to Bondi Beach. The walk was lovely: lots of joggers, dogs, and beautiful scenery. Beats spending a night-in in front of the television that's for sure.