The Great Ocean Road

Yesterday was the third early morning in a row for my parents and I.  We got up and met at their hotel at 7:15am to be picked up for our Great Ocean Road tour.  We were unusually early and waited outside where we thought we were supposed to be.  We soon learned that there was another entrance to the hotel and our driver had been sitting there for 15 minutes waiting on us until he finally called me and said that he had had to leave.  Luckily we explained that we hadn't in fact ditched him but rather had just made the mistake of being in the wrong place, so he circled back around to get us.  There were 8 people total and were seated in a rather spacious van.  Once everyone was on board we got out of the city and made our way to the first destination.

The first stop on the tour was Anglesea Beach for morning tea.  It was a bit windy, but quite beautiful.  My parents wandered down to the water but I opted out...it was too early for me to get sand in my shoes.  On the flip side, I did manage to finally try Vegemite and I will say that it wasn't that bad (though I don't think I'm ever going to seek it out).  There were also lamingtons, tim tams, and ANZAC biscuits available to go along with the tea and coffee.  It was a nice little spread and a good way to get going.

The next stop was at the entrance to the Great Ocean Road.  We only got out for a few minutes just to get a closer look at the statue and archway. There were some nice houses up on the hill that have million dollar views and can be rented out for vacation.  One of them had glass windows from top to bottom and was really amazing to look at, though I don't know if I would want to live there because of the whole lack-of-privacy thing.

We hopped back into the bus for a little bit before stopping again to feed some exotic birds and to try and spot koalas.  We succeeded in both but the birds scared me and so I offered just to be the photographer.  Something about them flying at my face just didn't appeal to me.  We were able to spot three koalas but they were kind of boring to look at because they sleep for 19 hours a day.  They need that time because their body takes so much energy to break down the nitrogen content of the leaves they eat.

The driver gave us a bathroom break before we hit up the rainforest.  In the car, he made my mom and I extremely nervous because of the tales of his encounters with snakes in the forest.  We almost didn't get out of the bus but we decided we had to and in the end we were lucky and didn't spot any reptiles.  Apparently that rainforest is home to a species of carnivorous snails that have fangs and act like alligators in the fact that they will take pieces of their prey and will hide them and let them "marinate" for a couple of days before going back to eat them.

A beautiful rock formation called the Twelve Apostles was next.  Funnily enough, there aren't even twelve structures; it started out with nine and then more recently one collapsed so now there are eight.  In any case, it was amazing to look at.  This is a pretty well known destination in Melbourne and I've heard many people talking about it.  I was told that I had to go see it before I left and I'm really glad my parents and I got the chance to do so.  I'm also happy because my dad was able to explain some of the phenomena of the formations and give us details about the structures (yay, geology!).

Our last stop on the tour before heading back into the city was at London Bridge.  It has nothing to do with the nursery rhyme, but a part of it did in fact fall down which is kind of funny.





We all piled in the bus after taking our time looking around.  We had a little over a two hour ride back ahead of us, but it wasn't terrible.  I was able to sit with my mom and we were able to fill the time with conversation.  Overall it was an amazing tour but we were exhausted when we got back around 9:30pm.  I woke up late this morning and will be meeting my parents at the Victoria Market in 20 minutes.  We are going to walk around there for a bit and if the weather holds up we'll explore more of the city.  Kenny comes in tomorrow so the Carter clan will finally be whole again.