After spending a night in Melbourne, the crew decided to head east along the “Great Ocean Road”. The guys were lucky to find a great rental car for a really good price. The guys asked for the “largest possible orange car” and were more than pleased with the results (see pictures). The full sized orange car with insurance for 25 days was about $700 (US)/5 people = 2 less beers per night per person…not a major sacrifice. Early the next morning the guys headed along the Great Ocean Road stopping at all of the scenic overlooks and surf shops along the way. About 2 hours outside of Melbourne is one of the most famous surf breaks in the world know as Bells Beach. Unfortunately, the waves were not as good as they can be.
The destination for the night was Lorne which was described in the Lonely Planet as “the liveliest and trendiest town on the Great Ocean Road”. The town proved to be neither! It was a nice town, but it was dead. The hostel of choice only had three beds left and they were in the game room. That means that some people slept and some people played games (i.e. pool, ping pong, hide the horsy, etc). Combined with the fact that Lorne was having the hottest day since 1939, there was not much sleeping going on. It was a sweaty one.
The next morning it was back to Melbourne to pick up Chris’ sister Karen and her friend Marr who thought they were brave enough to travel around with the guys for a month in Australia. They are lovely girls that will make the pictures much more appealing to the eye (they asked for this crafted sentence to be inserted). The guys were happy to have someone other than each other to talk to. Since it is a crime to visit Melbourne without hitting the Great Ocean Road, it was back on the road with one full orange station wagon. One of the most impressive sites along the coast is known as the “12 Apostles” which consists of 7 massive sandstone pillars sticking out of the water. ( We know what you are thinking, why the “12” apostles? For this we have no answer).
Australia is a very interesting place. One of the things that makes it unique is in the bathroom. Not that we are fixated on bathrooms, but since we have described several of them in past journal entries, we feel obligated to keep you filled in on this otherwise unmentionable room. The thing that makes Australian bathrooms unique is that the toilets have 2 flushing buttons - one is a half flush (and is used for #1) and the other is a full flush (used for the duce). One person who will not be mentioned said they had not “duced” (pushed the full flush button) in 10 days. It was one of the funniest moments of the trip.
Now we are back in Melbourne after completing the Great Ocean Road trip and will be heading north along the east coast to Sydney in the morning.
If anything interesting happens…we will let you know.
-The Crew Plus Two
