G.O.R (Time for a jumbled up history lesson!)

When the alarm stared going with it's familiar and offensive noise, I grabbed it and for a fleeting second wondered if I could pospone the trip until another day. But I got up and showered. The room was absolutely freezing, but I guess that was my fresh out the shower skin mixed together with being tired. I fumbled about for five minutes trying to put the heater on in my room. Thermostat set to thirty...

The coach picked me up right on time. We drove all around St Kilda picking other people up before heading into the city and stopping outside a McDonalds where everyone filed off and got onto their designated trip coaches (some people were going to other places). I was one of the last to arrive and sat on a little single seat towards the back of the twenty four seater coach, and off we went!

The driver and tour guide for the day was Gary. He started talking almost immediately and drew my attention to the microphone hanging down from the ceiling just in front of me. He instructed us all to go around, one by one and introduce ourselves and talk about what we were looking forward to. I let the microphone get passed to everyone else around the coach, and when it finally arrived back with me, I sank down as low as I could into the chair and put the microphone back where it had come from, prompting some school like giggles from some of the people behind me. I'd even thought up a bit about "Hi I'm Kim, and I'm an alcoholic" or to say that I was looking forward to seeing London Bridge to see what the comparison was, but this required effort. And the best part is, I got away with it.

Gary filled us with trivia the whole way there and some of the way back. We started out of Melbourne completely headed for a place called Geelong (pronounced g'long, the idiots), which was sort of the next place outside of Melbourne. The commuter area like Stevenage or somewhere like that. We were told about the timber extraction and how a lot of places in Geelong chipped wood to be sent to Japan to be sent back as paper. We drove over the West Gate bridge to get there, which was just a long bridge, your bogstandard bridge, but the third longest in Australia and the two flags that they'd put on the top of the bridge cost just under $400,000 which is stupid... In Geelong, we were driven around the town, down by the bay and the marina and shown the houses that cost upwards of two million each. The driver was particularly passionate about this place because it's where he grew up and lives now and works. Apparently this place also was the birth place of the Westfield shopping centre, and I'm sure there's one of those in Nottingham?

We headed to a place called Torquay which is the start of the Great Ocean Road. The road itself was built by all the solders who came back from WW1 as a tribute to the fallen. Which doesn't seem fair to me. You've spent a few years risking your life every day during battle and you've survived! NOW BUILD A ROAD.

I could go into every detail about where we went and what happened next, but I believe the trip can only really be summed up in pictures;

A quick stop was made on the roadside to have tea and biscuits and a bathroom break. The wind had really picked up and the sky was overcast and there were a lot of seagulls who obviously were not afraid of humans.

We went to Bells beach, which is a great place for surfing and mentioned in the film Point Break. There are a lot of contests held here, and it is very rocky and the sea quite rough, so no good for sunbathing, but great for surfing.

We went to a township called Lorne which apparently is home to a lot of artists and musicians and there is a fabulous market every Sunday in which they showcase all of their work. There's also a really good music festival which happens everywhere and Interpol headlined this Summer.

The roads were very very windy and bendy and climbed steeper and steeper upwards.

We stopped off somewhere (I'm not quite sure where exactly it was), but it was small. There was just a camping area and a small shop, yet lots of other coaches full of people on tours. This is where we walked around for a little bit and saw the koalas at the very top of the eucalyptus trees. Some were eating and picking leaves and some of them were all balled up and clinging onto the tree having a sleep. One little guy was quite active and jumping the branches, but he wasn't cute because he had a pee. Apparently koalas have no nerves in their bums, just bone which is why they can sit on a branch all day and not be bothered. They sleep during the day and move around at night stripping trees of their leaves and pretty much trying to get themselves extinct by eating their food source quicker than it can regenerate.

There was a field we passed that had kangaroos in it. They were quite far away and stupid looking. Just laying in the grass sleeping. Apparently the roos and the koalas here are fluffier than the ones further up the country because they've adapted to the slightly cooler temperature. Kangaroos again sleep all day and then hop about at night and are prone to hopping in front of cars and writing your car off completely.
We stopped in a township called Apollo Bay for our lunch, which was one of the last big ports of call before the big drive to Adelaide. I had the souvlaki and it was good!!

Next, we stopped at a rainforest, Maits Rest rainforest walk, which was a tiny chunk of the rainforest that had been set up for tourists to walk around safely. Lots of mud and steep hills and buzzing things and the temperature was so very cool inside underneath all the canopies. We learned about the different trees and how they reproduce and how so many of the species were brought over from other countries.

In Port Campbell, The Twelve Apostles was the highlight of the tour for most people. It's basically a big long walkway out towards the sea where you can marvel at the huge stacks of limestone rock that have been separated from the land. There were twelve of them, but some of them have fallen down due to the same eroding that carved them there in the first place. Seeing as the sea never stops though, it will continue to make more.

Gary explained about Lord Ard Gorge, (which is where I'm standing on the beach), and about a ship that was sunk there. This boy Tom Pearce escaped unscathed and rescued and Irish passenger called Eva Carmicheal and stayed with her for days and nights until he could find help. They both survived, but predictably, didn't end up getting married. She went back to Island and he became the Captain of his own ship.

The last stop was to see the London Bridge, or the London Arch as it's now called. Two arches together that look like London Bridge. Apart from one of the arches fell into the see. In 1990, a couple taking a romantic stroll right to the edge of the 'bridge' felt the ground shake beneath them. When they turned around, that arch had crumbled away, leaving them stranded with nobody around. They waited and waited and waited and eventually, somebody saw them and raised the alarm and they were rescued. The couple didn't want either of their identities to be published along with the story, because the man had phoned in sick to work that day, and the woman was not his wife! I assume this is why there were lots of 'look out' points near the points of attraction on the beach, but no way down to the sand. The elements are taking their toll on the cliffs and making them too unstable to stand near.

From here, we started on our way back to Melbourne, not on the scenic country roads that we'd came on, but on the Princes Highway through towns and fields and eventually onto a motorway, stopping briefly for a Chinese noodle supper. The towns I saw whilst driving through the countryside were so unbelievably cute and exactly how I imagine the town is in the book that I'm reading (Nicholas Sparks, The Choice). Once stuck in my mind, Winchealsea. We drove through the high street and it had a tiny general store and a tiny veterinarians office, and a doctor stroke dentist office and the smallest library I've ever seen and the school and there was a few streets that lead off the high street which contained the houses and homes of Winchelsea. It was so far away from the next town, it reminded me of middle America and I really wanted to get off and have a nosey around. We got home at nine, after travelling just over 300kms. The whole day was so much fun and it was so nice to get out of the city and see the REAL Australia, even though it was still Australia made for tourists. I only wish that I could go and see more of it.