Around Melbourne – February 3 – 8, 2007
The drive from Sydney to Melbourne took all day to cover the more than 800 kilometers, mostly through small farming towns. The landscape turned much dryer as we entered the state of Victoria and approached the Southern coast, with treed mountains and hills giving way to brush-covered plains. There was also a twinge of cool in the air as we made it further and further South, which felt odd. We skirted the city of Melbourne to reach the small surfing town of Torquay to the Southwest. This would be our base for a few days to try to catch some good surf at the world-famous Bell’s Beach and to drive a good part of The Great Ocean Road, which extends for hundreds of kilometers to the West.
After exploring the town center of Torquay, which took all of five minutes, we found a few bunk beds at the only hostel in town, which was also the only sleeping option left in town. The place, like the town, was a shrine to surfing but was reasonably clean. We shared a room with an unfortunate Italian couple that had been unable to find another place to stay and were definitely past the age of enjoying a bunk bed in a hostel. After finding no waves the next day, we spent the day driving the Great Ocean Road to the Twelve Apostles. We estimated it would be about a 2 hr drive. Somehow, it was 8, but one of the most beautiful 8 hr stretches of cliffs winding mountain drives, with endless views of the sea and the cliffs falling into it. We drove past sandy pristine beaches, past perfect rocky ones and kept going. Finally we decided we were in it too far to just simply return without seeing the 12 Apostles rock formations, which is one of the most photographed spots in Australia. Weaving inland for a short while, we felt as though we had entered a storybook illustration of rolling green hills and pastures covered in cows and windmills with a small strip of aqua ocean in the very far distance. Passing through a small country town we were pulled over for the second time by a police officer administering random Breathalyzer tests. Chris told him about the Listerine he had used in the morning, blew into the gadget and we were off to the Apostles.
The 12 Apostles are probably the most beautiful natural wonder we have seen, competing with the Grand Canyon. Although much smaller in scale, we were more drawn to it because of its surroundings, a perfect blue sky with puffs of cotton ball clouds and empty, deep tan sand beaches surrounded by cliffs which appeared to have been sliced with God’s personal knife. The 12 Apostles are a group of massive freestanding columns just offshore, standing in the water spread almost evenly along a mile long portion of the coast. There are only about 8 left standing, some are just a pile of rocks from the constant battering of the waves. No one is positive when or how they formed. They are mysterious and breathtaking.
Our final day in Torquay was Superbowl Sunday, or Superbowl Monday in our time zone. Having checked the surf early and found none, we watched the game with a few other Americans at 10:00am. No beer, no pizza, no friends jumping up and down, and no good commercials. Luckily the game was entertaining and took us home for a few hours. I vowed to watch more football with dad and the boys next season. After the game we spent a few hours at the beach getting our last taste of surfing in Australia. Despite the small waves, we were in heaven with the breezy sunshine, breathtaking beach surrounded by cliffs and friendly atmosphere of people who seemed to enjoy just being there. Here, as with so many beaches we’d visited on our way down, the beach was a park, a public place to be preserved and enjoyed by all the town’s residents – not choked out with condos, cars or even a house as far as the eye could see. Just beach.
Our last few days in Australia were spent in Melbourne – a nice city that tries hard to be great like it’s big brother Sydney, but with no hills, no harbor and no great architecture, it’s really just a big city with some museums and lots of shopping. We dropped our beloved Hyundai Getz off on our way in so we were back on our own two feet. We did visit the Victoria International Museum, which would probably be worth the drive to Melbourne alone. All the great artists were on display, as well as some fantastic contemporary art, furniture art and photography. We also visited some smaller museums with amateur exhibits that were worth the admission price of free. Mostly we walked around the districts, window shopped, read magazines at the bookstores and just passed the time. We were so excited about the change of scenery New Zealand would bring but we spent hours reliving the great times and people we’d come across in Australia.
Tags: Travel
pcschroeder
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