The Great Ocean Road: Day 2

Another bright and early start on day 2 led us to Mait’s Rest Rainforest wherein reside carnivorous black slugs and 300-year-old trees. Our drive took us away from the coast and into the rolling hills just a few kilometers parallel.

Walter’s driving is a thing of beauty. Thousands of repetitions have given him the ability to pull even the sharpest curves smoothly and at top velocity. Our little mini-bus hugged curves, passed station wagons, practically flying through the Otway Forest and back to the coast by mid-morning.

Where the Twelve Apostles waited:

"Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb? When I made the clouds its garment; when I
wrapped it in thick darkness; when I fixed limits for it; when I set its doors and bars in place; when I said, "This far you
may come and NO FARTHER. Here is where your proud waves halt."

Above is not actually an apostle, but the Salt and Pepper Shakers.

Actually, there are only eight left standing—or seven, or nine, depending on who you ask. And the name “The Apostles,” created by the Australian government in 1922 when it decided sailors’ name “Sow and Piglets” didn’t have the right feel, carries very little actual significance. Coincidentally enough, though, they are falling one by one as the waves slowly wear cracks into them until they collapse into the sea. But by that same order, the waves will continue to create new apostles. Surely there’s a Biblical metaphor in there somewhere.

Don't remember this formation's name. Perhaps "Wall"?

Loch and Gorge is host to a shipwreck and the cave that hosted the only two survivors of said shipwreck—Tom and Eva. The cave, to which I didn’t bring my camera for fear of getting it wet, would have made my 12^th grade English teacher proud, as it perfectly demonstrated what Plato’s Cave was supposed to describe. Plus there were cool shells!

The remaining stops were similarly beautiful, but I have no stories to tell about them. Pictures, I think, will suffice.

Rebecca and Luciane - my two mates on tour . . . who happened to be Brazilian

Upon this rock I will build my church?

London Bridge's first arch fell down, creating only one little island arch instead of the previous two. Apparently when the other arch fell a few years ago, a couple had been parked on what is now an island. They had to be rescued off the
suddenly-created island by helicopter. At first thought to simply be camera-shy, it transpired that the couple was
conducting an affair and the publicity of their "accident" outed them. Justice?

Shipwreck coast (wonder why).

The Great Ocean Road: Day 1

“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.”

-Rabindranath Tagore

Good for the butterflies. As for me, “time enough” is a concept more foreign to me than physics. Where is “time enough?”

Time enough to write this blog post before I do something else blogpost worthy.

Time enough to plan the next blogworthy event.

Time enough to learn Portuguese and Korean and Japanese and how to be a Writer.

Time enough to read All the Books.

Torquay surfer

Perhaps I’m missing the point of the quotation. All that to say, here’s the sparknotes version of the GREAT OCEAN ROAD (I capitalize because, truly, it’s great and truly, I’m a little obnoxious in my heart of hearts):

I took a two-day tour with Around and About Tours, run by Walter Edgar (who I didn’t ask if it bothered him that he’d been cheated out of a last name by having two firsts). Day one started with Torquay (pronounced tor-key), the surf capital of Victoria. Despite unseasonably cold wind and weather, tons of people were out surfing. Also, swimming. Apparently when we Americans say “go jump in a lake” the Aussies take it above and beyond by jumping in the ocean—and then swimming across it. While I sat looking over the bay around Point Danger (I’m not making that name up, by the way), three guys swam halfway across the bay in less time than it took for me to wrap my mind around how big the waves were.

Airey's Inlet

We saw kangaroos at Bell’s Beach and on a golf course in stop three, Anglesea. After that was Airey’s Inlet and the Splitpoint Lighthouse. Near Fairhaven Beach—at which I talked to a couple of friendly local fishermen—the Memorial Arch straddled the Great Ocean Road. The arch commemorates the Australian WWI servicemen who made it home from the Great War and were given one of the only jobs available to them: crafting an enormous highway on the side of a mountain with little more than pickaxes, shovels, and dynamite. The road is, technically, the world’s longest war memorial.

Fairhaven Beach

Lunch at Lorne where I watched surfers be awesome. A lot of places we went, surfing appeared to be simply the art of tipping over. Not at Lorne—a group of five or six people rode wave after wave, pulling 360s and walking back and forth on their boards. I—novice surf-watcher that I am—was suitably impressed.

From Lorne to Apollo Bay was some of the most amazing driving. Walter, our tour guide, was a pro driver, taking the curves fast and controlled—and I got to sit shotgun for the entire ride, enjoying view after view.

The Great Ocean Road

We stopped and saw a few waterfalls, which were more like waterdrips. But I didn’t care too much because we also got to stop and see some koalas. Again, I don’t know much about koalas—besides that apparently koalas from different regions only eat the type of eucalyptus grown in that region and refuse other types—but I can’t say it matters. Those little things are cuter than ewoks and I want one.

Apollo Bay, our stopping place for the night, is literally a one-street town with nothing besides a beautiful seaside to attract people to it. I spent the night in a room with four English boys—no, not my first choice mom and dad, but the cheapest!—who, along with this full-of-personality hostel, deserve a blogpost all of their own.

Expect the sparknotes of day 2 tomorrow.