Australia, 2009-11-28
It was probably a good thing we crashed so early the night before — we’d only planned a short nap, but it ended up taking us through the whole night. We needed it. It was the first time we’d adapted, and caught up, to a somewhat normal sleep schedule.
The hostel recommended breakfast at Degraves St., which conveniently enough was halfway between the hostel and our car rental. It’s right near the Flinders St. Station as well, and reminds me of the small cafe-lined European streets that movies are so fond of shooting. It really was a charming little area; breakfast was delicious, and for the first time, not of obscenely large portions. And to top it off, there was a kick-ass little jazz-punk band playing in an alcove at the end of the street, complete with upright bass.
We wandered the Melbourne CBD until we found our the rental agency, which conveniently enough was right across the street from the hotel we planned on staying at after we returned. I was a little hesitant to drive though the business district on the right side of the road and the wrong side of the car — and not because I didn’t trust my driving skills. Melbourne has these bizarre right hand turns rules in the CBD: to turn right, you pull into the intersection, on the far left hand side, then when all the cars and trams have cleared, you cut across every lane of traffic going both direction, and turn right. Makes no sense to me. As it turns out, this would be the least of my problems.
I kept turning on the blinkers instead of the windshield wipers, and vice versa.
After we got on the freeway, the frequency of inappropriate windshield wipings decreased, and we found ourselves headed down to Torquay. We also passed hundred-strong motorcycle gang at a gas station, and didn’t yet realize we’d be playing leapfrog with portions of their group all weekend.
At the end of Torquay is Point Danger, our first view of the ocean on our Great Ocean Drive journey. It’s quite beautiful, and the clouds rolling in weren’t yet threatening and provided a wonderful texture to the already beautiful scenery.
On the way out, we hit up a restaurant called “The Nocturnal Donkey,” if only for the name — which we’d also end up recognizing, in the future, that Australian have a fondness for restaurants name “The Odd-Ajective Animal,” like “The Exploding Frog” or ‘The Effevescent Duck.”
As we ate, the clouds turned on us, and it began to pour quite heavily. Since we were headed up the road to Bell’s Beach, and it’s associate with the stormy antics of Point Break (which was not filmed on-site, however), it seemed appropriate. Bell’s beach, like just about all of the Great Ocean Drive, is stunning. We wandered the shore for and hour or so, although the rain made it a bit difficult for me to shoot.
Most of the rest of the day was spent on the road, stopping periodically to take in the salt air, rainstorms, moments of sunshine, and snap photos. Oh, and we learned that if there are cars stopped on the side of the road, with the occupants gazing upward, that someone has spotted a koala. We emulated this behavior frequently, although not always when koalas were around.
We rolled into Apollo Bay near sunset and went searching for a place to crash. Unfortunately, it was the weekend, and it appeared that Apollo Bay was somewhat of a mid-to-upper class getaway for Melbourners. After an hour of driving around, checking off each entry in the Lonely Planet guide, we found one available room at Nelson’s Perch B&B. The owner, Wayne, was spectacularly friendly. The rooms was actually less than the guidebook stated, even on a high-demand weekend. He informed us that the town shuts down early, so he handed us a set of keys, told us to drop our bags, get dinner, and we’d take care of the charge in the morning. After a quick inspection of the rooom — which had a kind size bed, jacuzzi in the bathroom, private patio, and all the trimmings, we thanked him sped out splurge on a dinner.
We settled on La Bimba, a seafood restaurant we’d spotted earlier, since Apollo Bay was, and perhaps still is, a fishing village. The food and wine were truly fantastic; we had the seafood paella for two. I highly recommend it, even though it’s not inexpensive.
Sated, we headed back to Nelson’s Perch, where the wind and rain rose to torrential levels. As Lanaea prepped for bed, I took the opportunity to back up the days photos to my netbook and charge my camera batteries. Prior to the trip, I’d constructed something of a voltron doppleganger, where battery charges, outlet adapters, and all things electronic hook together with a surge supressor.
The one thing hadn’t yet used, was the surge supressor, which I’d brought more for it’s ability to turn one outlet into three, so I didn’t have to buy a bunch of outlet adapter. Of course, this was also the thing I forgot to check for electrical characteristics, so as soon as I plugged it in, pow, the supressor blew it’s fuse and dropped the entire 220V circuit. Doh.
Half the devices in the room still worked, so I figured it each room had a circuit or two, and I could let Wayne know what happened in the morning.