Great Ocean Road

This past weekend, a few folks from the EAPSI program living in Sydney all traveled to Melbourne for the weekend to take it in and as I had been working non-stop since returning from Tasmania, I decided to take a break and play both host and fellow traveler to see some things I had yet to see.  Cam had taken in Tassie with me and with him came Megan from Idaho and Katie from Michigan.  I met up with Amelia (California) and Ben (Chicago), my fellow Melbournians, and we walked through St. Kilda and all met at the pier there for the nightly penguin return.

St Kilda Beach amusements and scares

St. Kilda Pier and Breakwater, home of the penguins

Boats at the pier marina with Melbourne in the distance

So Melbourne is located at the northern end of the Port Phillip Bay, very well protected from the ocean that it leads to (see map below).  There is a large pier/jetty in the bay near St. Kilda that is home to a colony of little penguins (literally and scientifically, that is their species name and they are the smallest type of penguins in the world) that nest in the protection of the rocks on the jetty and are subjected to quite a bit of tourism (so much so that half of the jetty is locked off by gates from people so that they can nest undisturbed).  I had seen these guys last time I was in Australia, though that was on a weeknight.  This being Friday, there were MANY people present to see them come in from feeding/hunting and not nearly as many penguins came to the public viewing area as I had seen previously.  Nonetheless, while we were all catching up and waiting, one did swim right up to shore in front of us, and MAN are these little guys quick in the water!  We watched a few more exploring around the rocks (they hop around from rock  to rock and it is so great to watch), listened to the friendly local volunteer caretakers spew us facts, and listened to the calls of all of the penguins out on the jetty past the gates before heading back in to town for dinner.  Ben took us to the Lucky Coq in his neighborhood of Prahran, an eclectic bar with super good $4 pizzas during the happiest hour, easily the best food deal I have come across in Melbourne!

Map of Melbourne in relation to the large protected bay it is on.

Beers and goofs at the Lucky Coq.

We called it a night early as the travelers were beat and had a big day ahead on the Great Ocean Road.  This road runs the coast along the southern edge of Victoria and is home to beautiful cliffs and beaches, rock formations, wildlife, and nice little towns in between.  I will let the picture captions lead the narration from here!

Map of our route from Melbourne to Torquay, Aireys Inlet, Lorne, Apollo Bay, and the 12 Apostles at Port Campbell then back through the interior to Geelong and a return to Melbourne.

First view of the ocean and the unofficial gateway to the Great Ocean Road at Torquay

View of the break at Bells Beach, Australia's most popular surfing spot; featured in Endless Summer and headquarters to several well-known surfing companies (Rip Curl, Quiksilver).  There were probably 100 surfers out on this chilly day.

Lighthouse at Split Point near Aireys Inlet

Awesome cliffs and rock formations at Split Point, home to an ocean reserve of pretty great biodiversity (under the sea!)

Waves and dramatic far-off rolling headlands.  The coast is really beautiful and reminds me of Oregon or Northern California but also even Hawaii (though lacking the tropicality in winter)

Limestone castle; waves pound these things at the base and will eventually erode them as new formations are formed at the more inland coastal cliffs.  The ocean wins eventually until more rock is laid down by volcanic flows (darker basalts at the bottom) or by sedimentary rock when oceans rise and lay down layers of sandstone or limestone underwater.

Dramatic entrance to Jurassic P...I mean the Great Ocean Road.  Taken by yours truly whilst driving on the left-hand side of the road!

A flcok of hungry cockatoos, wild and normal to spot here in Australia, in the town of Lorne where we stopped for fish and chips and ice cream!

Loner.

Birds of a feather.

Beautiful view of hills and the Kennett River just upstream of the ocean.  I wanted to jump in so badly!

A brilliant two-tone blue jobber.  Apparently it is a Superb Fairy-wren.  Beautiful little bird!

We stopped at Kafe Koala near the Kennett River on suggestion from Amelia and there were loads of awesome birds as well as some free-ranging wild koalas in the trees!  This was my first time seeing them outside of a sanctuary, and to see them just hanging out, untethered or contained, renewed my interest in them.  I am back on Team Koala after this (we saw 4 of them!)

So much COLOR!

A random tourist having his picture taken with the friendly birds.

A kookaburra I had just heard laughing at me.  These guys are super cool stout little birds with a mighty joyful cackle!

Beautoful valley and rolling hills just inland of Apollo Bay.  My kind of place.  SO pretty!

A peak of the ocean from this roadsie turnoff that we could not pass up!

View of the so-dubbed 12 Apostles, our western-most destination.  These limestone stacks are beautiful and dramatic, though there are only 8, despite the name.  A ninth fell only just in 2003 or 2005, I can't remember.  This place was LOADED with tourists despite it's peaceful feel in the pictures.

Cool temple-like formation.

Two apostles looking east from the main trail and vantage.

The apostles as seen artfully through some native vegetation.

We staked out a spot facing west a bit before sunset and just hung out front row while others scrambled behind us, cursing us in several foreign languages.  This was my favorite shot.

Sun going down on a beautiful scene closing a wonderful day.

We had been talking quite a bit but at a certain truly beautiful point, we all just kind of became silent.

After sunset we raced the darkness to head a bit east to the Gibson steps to get down to the beach level to comprehend the size of the columns.  Cameron snapped this pic of me, Megan, and Katie heading back towards the stairs with the moon aglow, and I really like it.

So after we left the 12 Apostles, we headed inland to bypass the coastal roads and head straight for Geelong for some evening supper.  The drive was much faster and we found ourselves in a large stream of cars all heading back after their day trips away from the city!  Our destination in Geelong was a restaurant I had discovered in an airplane magazine on my way to Tassie called the Hot Chicken Project.  A local chef had traveled to Nashville to live for a year and learn how to do the hot chicken that has become so popular there.  I have been to Nashville several times and have yet to try this stuff but I figured why not try it in Australia!  It's basically just fried chicken with a spicy dry rub incorporated into the batter and it is GOOD!  I got the dark meat meal at the "So Damn Hot" heat level with greens, white bread, and pickles.  My favorite bite was honestly a piece of the skin wrapped around a pickle, it was seriously AWESOME!  With comfort food from home and a really great day with good people, I was feeling a lot less homesick, that's for sure!

On Sunday we all slept in then met up for coffee and I took the Sydney folks to see the flying foxes in my neighborhood, which they loved.  Then we hit up the Queen Victoria Market for lunch and shopping, meeting up again with Amelia and Ben before we all headed to an AFL game together, a matchup between the St. Kilda Saints and my MFC (Melbourne Football Club) Demons.

Me, Cam, Amelia, and Katie at the AFL game.

Australian Rules football has it's origins here in the state of Victoria, and while it is a largely regional game with about 8 teams all from Melbourne, it has become Australia's most popular sporting league (despite grumblings from the rugby crowd who have an affectionate term for it that I will leave to your imagination) with teams all over the country now.  Games are played weekly on Thursday - Sunday, much like the NFL, and it is a pretty exciting sport.  Players wear no padding and move the ball down the field by kicking it in the air, catching those kicked balls, passing it by bopping it off their hand, or running with it and occasionally bouncing it off the ground every few strides like dribbling.  There are three posts in each teams goal area and a 6-point goal is scored by kicking it through the midlle ones while 1-point is awarded for the outer two.  The contact is rough and these guys run for 4 quarters of 30 minutes each, so they are INTENSE athletes.

The Australian crowd goes NUTS for big hits and hard-nosed attitudes.  I consider the game like a cross between basketball, soccer, football, and hockey.  It really has elements of all of them.  I really kind of love it and wish I could follow it home a bit.  I am hoping to go to one more game while I am here as my thirst was not quenched by just this one.  Mostly because the Demons played kind of bad after a fast start and Kilda really poured it on at the end despite an exciting third quarter.  I want to see a WIN!!!  Anyways, we enjoyed the game and then all headed home to our respective places, fully satisfied after a really great weekend!