Ironically enough we ended up back in the UK on their wedding day, although it was certainly not a celebration. Heather and Paul left for their Honeymoon while we were still in the UK, and our plans to give them a room for their first stop in Melbourne obviously fell through. By the time we arrived back in Melbourne they had already moved on to New Zealand. All was not lost, and a week later they returned to Melbourne, and after our long drive back from Lakes Entrance, I took the relatively short drive to the airport to pick them up.
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| Along the Great Ocean Road |
Having taken a lot of leave already this year I wasn't able to get any extra time off to spend with our guests and so we had to make the most of the weekend we had together. On the Saturday I took them on the now familiar day trip up to Hanging rock, although the traditional stop at the Organ Pipes national park was omitted as the entrance road off the Calder freeway was closed. On the Sunday I took them on the much more ambitious drive along the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road is a 243km stretch of road that follows the coast along south west Victoria between the towns of Torquay in the east and Allansford in the west. It was built by returning soldiers after the first world war, in part to give them jobs, but also to connect the isolated western settlements. We set off early with the goal of getting as far as Port Campbell and the 12 Apostles before heading back, making a few stops on the way. We made good time out of Melbourne, passed Werribee and Geelong finally joining the Great Ocean Road at Anglesea. We took a stop early on at a sandy beach where we got out and stretched our legs before heading on. We did not stop at the Lighthouse from 'Round the Twist' as Heather never had a TV growing up, so missed out on the significance instead our next stop was at the Great Ocean Road monument where we took a few photo's before getting back on the road again. We went straight through Lorne without stopping but kept our eyes open as I had heard that there was a good Koala spotting point along Grey river road. Despite keeping our eyes open we did not find the road we were looking for and when we took a stop at a rocky cove to look for crabs, I took a quick look on google maps and realised we had already long passed Grey river road, which was annoyingly located no where near the Grey river we had just crossed. We stopped again at Apollo bay for lunch, we had already been on the road for 4 hours by this point and I was seriously considering calling it quits then and there, dreading the long drive back home again. Once I had a full stomach again we decided to push on, we had after all come this far, it would seem a waste to go back now without seeing the 12 Apostles. The drive from Apollo bay to Port Campbell was long and winding, cutting inland away from the sea, it felt like it would never end. After what seemed like forever we finally broke free from the forested hills and were back along the coast, the 12 Apostles finally in sight.
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| 12 Apostles, Port Campbell |
I first came to the 12 Apostles 9 years ago with Barnadi, and several of the limestone columns have collapsed since then, not that there were 12 of them even then. It was a shame Barnadi couldn't have joined us on that trip as the place is filled with nostalgia, back to a time when our relationship was still new and everything was an adventure.
We took a short cut home back inland via Colac and the A1, which took a mere 3 hours to get us back compared to the 5 hours on the way out.
I was working the rest of the week so didn't get to spend much time with Heather and Paul, although they entertained themselves with a trip to Healsville on one day and Belgrave on another. We got them a ticket for dinner on the Tramcar restaurant as a last minute wedding present. Heather and Paul had to leave Melbourne the following weekend and I wasn't even able to see them off at the airport because of work, but Barnadi took them down before heading to work himself.
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