The Great Ocean Road

G & C at The Apostles
see all photos »

Day 4-5 I seem to have the Aussie driving thing down – only occasional wiper moments and Cathy’s panic.

We headed out of Melbourne and down the Mornington Peninsula, seeing a combination of pretty seaside villages and your typical beach town tackiness. A lot like California’s coast. Then onto a ferry over to Queensclif and the start of the the Great Ocean Road, as spectacular an ocean drive as you will ever take. This 400 km drive along the ocean in southern Victoria passes through thick rainforests, lush rolling meadows, quaint little seaside towns, breathtaking sea cliffs, and huge limestone stacks. Along the way we stopped to see Koalas sleeping in Eucalypse trees along the road, cattle blocking the road so that Cathy had to get out and shoo them away, and a Kodak moment around each bend. Thank God for digital cameras! We stopped the first night in Apollo Bay, where we hunted down a motel with an internet connection so we could catch up on our email and update the blog, and a restaurant with a fireplace so we could keep warm during dinner. Actually the last two days have been warm and beautiful – we couldn’t have asked for better weather. The second day we took in the oldest lighthouse in Australia, perched on a cliff overlooking the bluest water we’ve seen. Next was The Twelve Apostles – those huge limestone stacks sitting just offshore. They are more dramatic then anything we’ve seen on our West coast and the light here brings out their earthen colors very dramatically. We ended up tonight in Warrnambool, a comparatively large town and home of Cheese World.

The Twelve Apostles
see all photos »

Interesting Australian facts: There are 40 million kangaroos (and Cathy still hasn’t seen one in the wild!), sheep and cows have been injected with a substance that cuts down on flatulence to reduce global warming, and some male Australian birds have learned to mimic cellphone ringtones. Just what the world needs!

That’s enough for now, must plan tomorrow…