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Blub, blub. Madge?
By Mikey
Thursday, 29th July 2004 05:39

Ok, the break's over. Despite my body's desire not to get out of bed, we got up at 8am (ish). We packed up our bags and walked to the Hertz office. It seems like renting cars and going to airports has become as normal as making breakfast for us. Getting back to the hostel was easy, getting over the river was not. What is it with Australians and confusing one way systems?

With two days of doing not much, we had to do a little bit of catching up before we left Melbourne. Our first stop of the day was the sleepy suburb of Vermont South and a road called Pin Oak Court. It took about 30 minutes to get there (ignoring the time wasted in the one way bits) and it felt very, very weird. You see, Pin Oak Court is the real name of the fictional Ramsay Street from Neighbours. It's been a very long time since I watched Neighbours with any regularity. In fact, the last significant event I remember in Neighbours was the death of Todd. That was nearly 10 years ago! Still, it was easy to recognise some of the houses. The Robinsons' house for example. (Now I am showing my age.) The bit that was weird was that we'd gone so far out of our way to visit a little road where no one we knew lived. We didn't stay long because it felt so odd.

Our next stop was St. Kilda's beach, supposed to be one of the nicest beaches in the area. But it was cold, windy and trying to rain so we really didn't stay too long.

We decided to start heading for the Great Ocean Road but on the way I drove us through Albert Park along part of the road used in the Australian Grand Prix (although at only about one sixth of speed).

We spent the rest of the day heading for a small town called Port Campbell where we stayed the night. The Great Ocean Road is appropriately named. Although very long and full of bends, the views are brilliant. Perhaps the best we've seen in Australia so far.

I felt really grotty the following morning. Probably a cold or something. Grrrrrrr.

We started out the day by heading back on ourselves. As it was getting dark when we arrived in Port Campbell, we didn't stop to see the 12 Apostles on the way. They were only 12km back along the road so we headed back there quickly. The 12 Apostles are chunks of cliff face that have become separated from the mainland by erosion from the sea. They are supposed to be spectacular at sunset but we were a bit too late for that yesterday. They certainly are impressive and well worth the stop. We also stopped to take a look at the Bay of Islands on the way to War.. Wal.. Wer.. somewhere unpronouncible anyway. Before we got to the unpronouncible place, we had a quick stop just outside Allansford to visit Allansford's Cheese World. There we sampled many interesting cheeses before buying a couple.

Just down the road, we stopped at Logan's beach to see if we could see any Southern Right whales. These whales get their name from apparently having been the right whales to hunt at some point in the past. There were quite a few people there with binoculars, waiting patiently. We stayed for 10 or 15 minutes and caught a few glimpses of something just offshore.

After lunch we mostly just drove onwards towards the town of Mount Gambier. We found the Blue Lake on the edge of the town. This lake supplies the town's water and sits in a volcanic crater. We got into the centre of the town at about 4.30 and since reception at our hostel was closed, we went away to find some fruit and an internet connection. We spent the night in jail.



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