I didn't take my laptop with me which is a regret really because I could use this blog as more of a diary than a retrospective exposé and a collection of the photos I also put on facebook. But hey, let's enjoy it ahaha.
Now I was lucky enough to complete a day tour of the Great Ocean Road. Now before I here you jump up and down at the fact it was a tour and I am generally anti-tour as I believe travel is best when done independently, there are some times when you just need to suck it up and do it. There are lots of benefits of taking day tours and these do sometimes extend to longer travel and whilst I can't really use any of these reasons to explain why I took the tour- just be at peace with the fact it was a freaking AH-MAH-ZINGGGG tour. I know when I go over to Europe, I really enjoy not having to think for a day or two so I book some day tours and whilst this was my first Australian tour- it definitely won't be my last. There is also this annoying fact that not yet being 23/25 I can't hire a car so therefore the Great Ocean Road was really only accessible to us via this tour. We had a great lot of choice for who we could go with but we choose wildlife tours and I would highly recommend them to anyone.
Along the day Flic and I were lucky enough to spot Koalas in situ and feed King Parrots from out hands. Everyone else seemed to scarred for the birds to eat from their hands until Flic and I held out and arms and after a few seconds, they swooped onto us in multiples! It was thrilling as the last time I remember feeding birds was when I was very little and would visit my neighbour who seemed to somehow have every bird in all of Sydney flock to his backyard. We got a few happy snaps at Memorial Arch. Interesting fact, the Great Ocean Road is a memorial to the soldiers of WW1 and because of it's nature as a road, and it's very long, snaking across the Victoria coast line, it is in fact the worlds largest (and I suppose longest in the same sense) memorial!
We drove through and got to visit some cute little towns and beaches along the way and what really excites me is the hippy vibe that these little surf and family holidaying spots have. I'm not just talking about surfie dudes and eskies but actually very exciting Indian and South East Asian jewellery shops and clothing places and there is this really cool alternative scene which I was really into. I know I don't mean to talk about the weather alot, but I was complaining about how hot it had been and Victoria and the fact that Melbournians just don't understand the concept of air conditioning or its more primitive cousin, the fan. Well on this fine and sunny day, it actually wasn't very fine nor was it very sunny. The rain broke the night before, and Flic and I were sans any warm clothing as we were locked in our oven of accommodation. There were some sporadic showers and a whole heap of wind- but it was all greeted with welcoming arms on our behalf.
So where was I? I saw the freaking Twelve Apostles! And by twelve, I really mean about 5 because that is all that is standing. We approached the look out and boy was it windy! After taking the obligatory tourist photos and just freaking out at how amazing the apostles were and the magnificent colours that sketched the cliff face, the rain began. It bucketed down, saturating us! But when you're Flic and me, we don't turn away from a little bad weather, like the rest of the people enjoying the view. No, we ventured in further, for better views, pushing against the pounding rain and violent winds, we persisted.
We returned to the bus, attempting to dry off before we boarded. Luckily for us, the rains had given way and the remaining winds had semi dried us off. Yet I still think we must have looked like we had just crawled out of a rainwater pipe, because our tour guides took pity on us and bought us coffee. I felt really bad, because it was the tour guides, buying US, drinks, and when we thanked them, they laughed at us and were all "well you just look so hopeless" and I didn't know whether to cry or laugh (jokes it was total "oh we are sad" laughing hahaha).
We also got to see some other pretty cool fallen away cliff bits including the Razorback, Loch and Gorge and London Bridge. Our day was jam packed and we totally loved every second of it, we even did a little intrepid (not really) rainforest walk.
It's a shame that both those little photos are a bit blurry! But I really like them the best so I thought I would share those ones.
The music that our guides were playing in the morning was pretty phenom but as the day progressed, the taste got progressively worse, to the point where our two leaders were playing songs from the Muppets. I.kid.you.not. So I kicked them off their radion system and took over. I even made a little playlist for the long drive home, something nice and easy to cater for the fact we had a very varied tour bus, including a 20 somethings English couple, a couple of French dudes, some old Thai and Indian ladies etc but once the playlist finished Craig the guide leader got a little freaky with my ipod and blasted some Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys and oh so much fun. I was so into it and it was crazy to have this 40 something guy totally singing along to Wannabe. So me and Flic, whilst we were totally chilling out to my original playlist got our shit pumping when good ol' hits from the 90s came on. Yeah budddyyyy.
God, Australia is beautiful!
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