Just glanced through my last two posts and realised that I forgot to mention that we zoomed along the Great Ocean Road before leaving Melbourne`s cold for the warmth of Cairns.
When we set out, anyone seeing us would have wondered if we were moving house. That was the extent of luggage we brought along for the weekend! Thankfully the boot was large enough for 3 huge backpacks...
It was quite an adventure getting out of Melbourne - driving on the "wrong" side of the road. Yet Francine rose to the challenge heroically and maneuvered between enormous lorries, numerous SUVs and not to mention the prevalent road rage without batting an eyelid.
Our first stop was near Torquay, where certain people went wild in the sales of Quicksilver / Billabong (surfer brands) and the like.
Fortified by a sushi lunch we sped on down to Lorne, a quaint little seaside village. Along the way we marvelled at the many untouched beaches. If it had been summer, we probably would have spent the whole time at a beach... but it was not to be.
We found a really nice backpackers just next to a cute tea house, serving up fresh scones with jam and clotted cream. Yum. You`ll never believe how hard it is to get Verveine tea over here. The Aussies don`t really have any kind of tea culture. How they miss out!
We had the best pizza of our whole trip here. A tiny little take away serving thin based pizza with the freshest ingredients, a definite must if you`re ever down here.
In the evening we patronised the (only) local pub. Francine and I relived our "skippy dance", a dance featuring all kinds of wildlife we encountered during our road trip in Jan 07. It involves a lot of vigorous jumping around. Only to be performed in Oz. Needless to say, everyone was impressed!
This guy tried to sell me this tall story that he was some kinda ranger, trimming eucalyptus trees for a living. The scars on his face were from the vicious koalas inhabiting the trees. Apparently when they cut down the trees, they strapped a tiny parachute on the animal and threw it out of the tree.
Yeah. Base-jumping koalas. Am not THAT drunk! Get me another drink on HIS tab (for having to listen to that), please!
We drove along the coast, enjoying the scenery, the lighthouses and the twelve apostles, before arriving in Warnambool (our turning point). I had read somewhere that there were whales along the coast and indeed, the receptionist confirmed that there was a mother and her cub just off the coast. Early morning at dawn was supposedly the best time to see their activity.
Of course we couldn't resist (well, minus Mark, the lure of a warm bed was too strong for him!) and rose early. Blurry-eyed Francine and I sped out to the designated area. I must admit that we were a bit too over ambitious with our early rising, as it was still pitch black we arrived at our destination. Thankfully we had passed an open 7/11 store, so we bridged the time with a warm drink.
Finally dawn broke and as you can imagine, we were the only ones there!
There we stood, our eyes straining into the distance, frantically checking each wave for a sign of a fin or something. Then suddenly, a spurt of water and a black dot that was, yes, it was a fin!! Not the tail fin but a fin nonetheless!
We spent around an hour squeaking excitedly whenever we saw a bit of the whale, however tiny. Finally we gave up and went back to brag.
Of course, on our way back to Melbourne we stopped to see if we could see any further activity and lo and behold there the cub was, showing off, rolling around and flicking its tail (once!) to a receptive audience. Oh well. So much for the early rising.
Last stop was at a winery in the middle of nowhere. The wine was just about ok and we were introduced to the concept of flourless chocolate cake. Tasted fine, yet was not convinced by the absence of flour (consistency was quite soggy).
