Day 10 - The Great Ocean Road and the 12 Apostles

Day 10 - The 12 Apostles
Originally uploaded by photog larry.

day 10 brought us, unfortunately, to our final full day in melbourne. debra was leaving that morning (or so she thought – it was really an afternoon flight) for paris that day, so much of the morning (and the previous night!) was spent repeatedly saying goodbye. :) steve and debra went with us to grab our rental car, which was located in north Melbourne, which I guess you can equate with scarborough….ghetto. we had some trouble finding the hertz place, since the road signs didn't make a whole lot of sense, but eventually, we found it. I grabbed a seat on the right side of the vehicle, and we drove out. it took some getting used to, but eventually, driving on the "wrong side" began to get much easier, though I did find myself drifting lanes at some points, and still looking the wrong way for oncoming traffic.

debra and steve had carefully explained to us how we would be getting to the highway that would lead us to the great ocean road. it seemed easy enough. especially since we needed to follow debra and steve all the way until the end, where there would be a big sign for the freeway which we needed to get on. but my being an idiot, I was unable to follow instructions, and we found ourselves on a side road. we drove around for a bit, and I then realized, that my phone was out of juice. greeeaaattt. heading out to a random place, driving on the wrong side of the road, with no method of communication if we got lost. hmmm…. so we panicked and turned around, and headed for home, to get my phone. somehow, we ended up behind debra and steve again, as they had been circling the area, wondering if we were ever going to come back to the place where we took the wrong turn, and we headed back with them to the apartment. we grabbed our phone, said a final goodbye to debra, and headed back for the highway, this time, actually getting on it.

the ocean road route was as expected. a beautiful drive along the coastline, with some stops along the way - surfing action at Bells Beach and in angelsey, to visit the local golf club, on which you can golf with the wild kangaroos that roam the fairway and interfere with your putts.
the rest of the drive was a race with the sun to the final stop – the 12 apostles. the 12 apostles are some rock structures that stick out of the water, formally part of the mainland, but turned into statues from the erosion. there are actually only about 8 of them left now, but still a nice site. they tend to get a lot of tourists, based solely on the location on the raod, as well as the name. Linda told me that there are similar rocks in new brunswick, that don't get nearly the recognition. perhaps its because they named them the flowerpot rocks. I'm sure if they called the rocks the pillars of God or something, that they would be swimming with tourists….

at any rate, we did get there before the sun set, and spent about 3 hours there, taking pictures, and waiting for the sun to set. finally finished with picture taking, bored and hungry, we got back in the car, now realizing that we had a few choices – attempt to head into some small town to get some food, or try to get back home at a reasonable time and eat something fast, and then PACK to leave the next day. realizing that we were still far off from completing our packing, we thought best to go home.

we decided to take a back road towards the inland highway, rather than taking the ocean road back again, as it would save a bit of time, and would be far less winding. so we set out on one of the county backroads, and drove, for what seemed like hours, in the dark, with no traffic behind us or in front of us. we did our best to stay on the prescribed roads, but at times, it was a bit confusing, due to the lack of signage, as well as a poor map. but we lucked out and had a tour bus pass us, and, figuring that it was heading back to the city, began to follow it. it helped us navigate to the highway we needed to get to, and the rest of the drive was a breeze. have no idea what we would have done if we had gotten lost (as my phone that we went back for earlier in the day, ran out of juice at midday).

we got back into the city, and dropped off at the casino, where I wanted to get my souvenir players card. Linda waited in the car in a hotel drop off area across the road, to avoid parking costs, while I went inside. I registered, got my card, and the guy told me that the card had a $5 credit on it….the devil inside my head wanted to see if I could quickly double it up, and I actually went to a slot machine just to see if it was there…couldn't figure it out in 30 seconds, so I left, knowing that Linda was waiting outside.

during this time, the doorman at the hotel had come out and already had told Linda that she couldn't park there, and came by again, just as I got back to the car. but I got in the car, we drove off, and that was the end of it. we headed back home, and began a long night of packing, and talking with steve, who likely was somewhat concerned of our late arrival back at the house. oops. sorry dad, we should have called. :)