Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road

We got to Melbourne and were TIRED. I hate to sound old, but too much partying and a lack of sleep can do that. Plus (probably for aforementioned reasons) I seemed to come down with yet another cold. We found a cozy hostel and slept. For a few days, really. We ventured out, saw some parks, sampled the cafe culture, watched a movie, hung out at the library, but didn't really care for the frenetic bustle of a big city.

Our one big adventure was tackling the Great Ocean Road, a strip of pavement they put down practically where the ocean meets the land, for some 200+km. Bob, the friendly proprietor of the hostel, called around to the rental car companies and got us a good deal from Europcar. When we went in to pick up our hire car, unluckily someone had returned a Toyota Camry the night before, otherwise we would have driven off in an Audi A-6 (I had no idea anyone rented out Audi's, but Europcar Melbourne has a whole fleet of them). That would have been the best budget car rental ever!

We made it down to the coast and stopped at almost all the points of interest on the map. We saw Bell's Beach where the movie Point Break with Keanu Reeves was filmed. We stalked wild kangaroos on a golf course. There was a light house with a little walk and more views, a hike through a eucalypt forest where we saw adorable, bright blue birds (superb fairy wrens), a wandering where we saw wild koalas sleeping in their trees- one even had her baby that we could see coming out of the pouch!

Part of the road took us through a forest and by plenty of livestock that we honked at. Just before sunset we made it to the famous 12 Apostles, a series of free-standing cliffs that are stranded in the ocean. There were 12 at some point, but a few of them have collapsed. We walked down to the beach and saw 2 up close, then went down the road to a viewing platform. It was lovely, but I've never experienced wind like that before- it almost blew us away!

The last stops we made were at the Natural Arch and London Bridge- which has, ironically, fallen down. People used to be able to walk across the natural span of the "bridge" but one afternoon it suddenly collapsed, leaving a couple stranded on the other side. Turned out to be a man and his secretary whom he was having a secret affair with. The secret was apparently out when it took them hours to rescue them and all the camera crews got it into the news. Oops.