Cruising the Great Ocean Road

Wed, Dec 21-- (Pictures have been added to all previous posts--keep scrolling down to see them...)

Three Aussie men are to thank for my day's adventures! The first, a friendly courier at the petrol station (yup, they do call 'em that here), rescued me when I got very lost attempting to traverse through 'can'o'spaghetti' Melbourne to get over to its west side.

I finally found my way and made it to my first intentional stop, the town of Geelong (pronounced j'long) where wonderful John at the visitor centre gave me very explicit instructions for making my way BACK through Melbourne at the end of the day without the wild side trips! As well, he advised me to see Geelong's prime visitor attraction, the painted bollards on the seafront (a couple of examples below--the nearby locals didn't know why the female bollard has no eyes!).

These were fun, but otherwise Geelong wasn't all that interesting, so after a sandwich on the sea, I carried on west to the Great Ocean Road--or so I thought...again I got lost, and was on the side of the road perusing my maps when Aussie gentleman number 3 came to my rescue. Like the good 'solo woman' traveller I am, I opened my window just a crack when he pulled alongside and came up to me. He decided that the route back to the highway was too complicated to explain, and suggested that I follow him instead. After 10 minutes of complicated twists and turns, I was really beginning to wonder just whether I had made a really bad decision...and then suddenly there was the turnoff and my gentleman waved me away with a cheery smile and a thumbs-up before heading back the way he had come. I'm sure he went WAY out of his way, and I certainly would never have found my way there on my own--nice to have human nature redeemed once in awhile!

Now on track, I was delighted to find myself driving on a winding cliffside track beside spectacular turquoise waters and golden beaches, with pounding surf dotted with surfers. I went as far as Lorne, a pretty beach village, and spent a happy hour on the beach photographing the unusual rock formations along the edges. Unfortunately, the local lifeguards had forgotten all their school geography and couldn't tell me anything about these unusual formations--kind of a cross between lava flows and kettle stones! The young lady at the coffee shop (Beach Buns--I love it!), however, suggested a side trip to nearby Erskine Falls and gave me good directions to it.

By the way--buying a cup of coffee in Australia is an adventure all by itself. They have gone just a bit too far into barista territory and you can no longer buy a simple cup of coffee--"Will that be a cappucino, a mochacinno, a frappe latte...???" The nearest you can get is a thing they call 'flat white' which, I finally learned, is really strong, almost espresso coffee, topped with just a bit of foamed milk, which collapses to form the 'flat white' cap on the cup. This little kicker revs you up for hours! But an ordinary 'regular coffee'? Not a chance. They don't even have cream for it.

Anyway, back to Erskine Falls. Up, up, up the road from the beach, then take a tiny side road and suddenly you are deep in eucalyptus forest, and parking at a visitor lot. Next, 250 (they warn you before you start) very steep steps down, down, down to the bottom of the ravine, to a platform beside one of the tallest falls in Australia, splashing down the rock face amid tree ferns, with the scent of some kind of minty plant floating through the spray. Gorgeous--like some kind of 'Herbal Essence' commercial!! Again there were very few people there, but enough that I was prevented from leaping into the pool and warbling some tribal song while washing my hair, anyway! ;) The river ran away across flat rocks that provided easy stepping stones, and it was very pleasant to sit right in the middle of the stream of water in the cool shade of the tree ferns, and listen to the splashing water and bird songs. Such a contrast to the beach only a kilometre or so away! What a gorgeous place.

Visitor Centre John's good directions got me back through Melbourne without a hitch (they REALLY need a ring road) and back to my little bed for a sleep filled with dreams of crashing waves.