great ocean road

↑ [sign (obviously) on archway over road]

The Great Ocean Road has been voted (by whom I have no idea) one of the world's most scenic drives. It is a tourist attraction to be sure, but also one of the must-dos of the area considering how close I am. The whole drive really was incredibly scenic. And, as an added bonus, I sat on the correct side of the bus to see straight out to the ocean the whole way (left side of the bus... left side of the road). This is another trip I did through the International Students Outdoors Program. [Note: Some of the pictures in this post are not the best photographically. However, when I uploaded pictures from the weekend to my computer there were 177 of them. So I decided if I was going to create a post about the weekend I might as well give you a picture from each place we went.]


↑ [group picture in front of our van/bus. i'm the one in periwinkle hangin' out of the window on the right]


↑ [beach in lorne]

The schedule was... go surfing in Lorne. When we got there it was absolutely freezing. After jumping in the ice-cold water to save my hat last weekend I woke up Monday morning sick. And then on Thursday my throat felt the way it did when I had Mono. So, in a very unlike-myself move, I decided to opt out of the hour-long surf session. I'm sure I would have enjoyed myself, and that it would have been warmer in the water... but I would undoubtedly have been unable to fight off the end of my cold successsfully. I'm leaving for a huge adventure in a week so I decided it just wasn't worth freezing my ass off. (And *man* did they look cold when those wet suits came off and they were standing in the ice-cold ocean wind, with ice-cold ocean water on them, no sun, and no clothes.) I was not alone in this decision. Several of us walked around the beach and clambered up the rocks and took pictures.


↑ [trampoline in lorne!]

Well... you know me. I'm usually not content to sit idly by if there is something more active to be doing. (I really was just trying to save myself from illness for my travels). We ate lunch in Lorne and then... I went to what can only be described as a trampoline park. In a field of grass between the beach front and the shops there are a whole series of trampolines (the super bouncy ones) in the ground! So... I paid my $2.50 for 10 minutes and only really got about 5 because we had to be back on the bus. But it was *totally* worth the $2.50!


↑ [erskine falls]


↑ [rainforest path near erskine falls]


↑ [koala (again, obvious]

Much of the first day of this two-day trip was spent driving for small stints and hopping out of the bus to see things down short paths or right near the road. There is this place near Kennet River where koalas live. It is well-known, the trees aren't that tall, and there is even a little resort set-up there. This means that there are lots of people pretty close to the koalas... and yet the koalas stick around. You would think they would leave but I guess the koalas are respected, have become used to people, and don't feel threatened. The result of all of this was that we saw, extremely close up, three of the most active koalas I've seen since I've been here. The one in the picture above was munching away and rearranging himself just above our heads. At one point he even hung down from one of the branches. Then just about 20 paces away there was another koala sitting in the grass eating from the low-lying branches of a tree! Pretty crazy.

:: insert crazy picture here ::

↑ Family- skip this paragraph if you would like to believe in my innocence. Okay, well there were a couple of pictures taken Saturday night but none with my camera. Saturday night we stayed at the Surfside Backpackers (aka hostel) in Apollo Bay. And let me tell you- it was a good time. All 24 of us (including our awesome guide Jared) got dinner in town and then hit up the liquor store and headed down to the beach. We hung out down by the beach with our not-so-innocent beverages and chocolate watching the moon appear and disappear behind the clouds, and listening to the waves crash on the shore (seeing them... in those moments when the moon appeared). When the cold wind became unbearable we headed back to the hostel where we set-up shop in the living room area, turned up the music, and continued the party. Hostelling with a group of international students is amazing! After playing a known American drinking game and learning a new one, I learned both a German drinking game and a Japanese drinking game. After all of that some crazies went back downtown to the bar where we got dinner. I went to bed. It was a very international good time.


↑ [otway fly]

This is a picture of the highest tower of the Otway Fly which is a 'steel-structured tree top walk,' which we did... (I know I know, some of the stories are lacking. But a picture is worth a thousand words right? If you ever want more stories about anything you know how to find me.)














↑ [loch ard gorge (top right: thunder cave. top left: blowhole). in campbell national park]

Our wonderful guide Jared told us the story of the shipwreck which happened here in 1878. Very dramatic and heroic and whatnot. The coolest part about these two places is not the image but the image in combination with the *noise.* The sound of the waves crashing into the blowhole is absolutely incredible. You can hear the waves coming before you can see them coming. And then once you can see them they smash into the sides of this place and then into the next set of oncoming waves. It's pretty amazing.



↑ [the 12 apostles]

I've saved the best for last. The Twelve Apostles are hugely iconic in Victoria, if not in Australia as a whole. The two images above are pretty good replicas of your classic Twelve Apostles shot. (See for yourself. Try a google image search.) They are spectacular (the Twelve Apostles that is). There are no longer twelve of them... there are only about eight. The crumble of rocks closest to you in the pictures are the remnants of the most recent collapse which happened a little less than a year ago. Most of the postcards and whatnot of the Great Ocean Road depict the Twelve Apostles. I set off on this trip with this image in mind— I was excited to see the Apostles for myself. The whole trip was filled with famous, scenic and touristy must-sees but somehow the Twelve Apostles still seemed like the destination. Indeed, they were the end of the road for us. And... they really are spectacular.