Great Ocean Road

 

It was thirty degrees the day after Christmas and we just had to get out of the house so we packed some snacks, brought out the picnic blanket we got as a wedding gift from a friend based in South Africa and printed Google maps. The spur of the moment thing led us to a day of driving along Great Ocean Road, a 243 km stretch along South East of Australia passing through various Victorian provinces and scenic coastlines of the South Ocean and Bass Strait. We drove for almost eleven hours (with brief stop-overs at Port Campbell, Cape Otway and Lorne Bay) just enjoying the view and swapping stories of childhood and UP days with the Eraserheads, Rivermaya, Parokya ni Edgar, Francis M, Gary V, Sabado Boys in the background.

 

One of the more popular attractions along Great Ocean Road is The Twelve Apostles, a collection of huge limestones off the shore of Port Campbell National Park. Todate, there are only "Eight Apostles" left since the stacks have collapsed due to waves eroding the bases over the years.

At least we caught up with eight during our lifetime.

 

We attempted to go to Great Otway National Park for some animal watching but it was two hours till dark and it would be wise to stay on the main road. We turned right back and got the cutest consolation...

...koalas in the wild!

 

We must have passed by over a dozen of these adorable, chubby, furry creatures perched from the trees.

Final stop was dinner at Lorne Bay, a popular camping site with quiant little stores and Sweet Valley High-like beach houses nearby. We should have stayed for the night to enjoy the place more but we had to head back home to doggie-sit for a family going out of town so we just hung around the beach for a while observing the waves gobble up the surfers, kids playing frisbee and multicultural families having their own picnics before calling it a day. It's too peaceful for words that maybe (and that's a big maybe) I'll give in to hubby's suggestion to go camping (the real thing---tent, building fire, pork and beans, hotdogs and marshmallows, insect bites!) for our next long weekend. Everyone here seems a fan of roughing it outdoors and anyway hubby's a boyscout so I'll we'll survive.