Leaving Adelaide Saturday afternoon, Jeff and I picked up a German boy called David to tag along with us in our travels down to Melbourne, or Mel-bin as the locals pronounce it. It was a bit of a dreary day and began to rain after we hit the road, then it got dark and started down pouring.
We pulled over the first chance we could at this little shanty of a motel/bar/restaurant. This was the town and that was all there was to it. We ran in to avoid getting completely soaked to be greeted by a grumpy bar keeper and a local bogan, who was three sheets to the wind. We asked, if they had any rooms for the night, “Nope, they’re flooded.” How about some dinner, can we get some fish and chips? “Nope, kitchen’s shut down and half flooded.” Hmmkay, well can we at least use your toilet? “Nope they’re flooded too.” We were a bit stunned by all this, but then the bar keeper went back to the kitchen and the drunk local, mentions he doesn’t know why the bar keeper can’t cook us up some dinner while cooking up his schnitzel. He then comments on how much he likes my Canadian accent. I snicker and say that’s great, but its not Canadian! He says, “You ain’t a f***in’ yank are you?!!!” and then proceeds to go off on some crazy rant. The bar keeper reappears and asks, “Can I help you?” We were just stunned! Obviously he can’t help us, everything is supposedly flooded! Then the drunkard says if we were that hard up, we could come and stay at his “shack”...
The rain let up a bit and we hit the road. There was another supposed town just fifteen minutes down the road. We decided to take our chances on this place called Salt Creek. Salt Creek turned out to be a paradise compared to the twilight zone of a place we had just left! We walked in to the backpackers/campground/petrol-service station/restaurant/bait shop/convenience store and the owner asks how he can help us. “Have you got some beds for us to crash in,” we ask cringing. He replies with a,”Sure do. Its $20 a person, but I’ll give it to you for $15 each since its late. Did you want anything to eat, because we were just getting ready to close up. But we can fry up anything from this portion of the menu.” We all look at each other in awe. This place was a God-send!
Sunday morning we ventured through Coorong National Park, which was a pretty neat sight, lots of salt and land and water. And some points there was water on both sides of us. We ventured to a little beachside town called Beachport and saw some pine trees, rainbows, lovely beaches and heaps of rainbows! Making good time and good use of the day light, we ventured down to Mt Gambier, home of a pretty sweet man made lake. Blue Lake, which was clearly names for its amazing color of deep blue, is a lake in the middle of the city surrounded by hills and reaches depths of over 70 meters! We captured some more rainbows here, then ventured on to the YHA in Port Fairy to crash in a much needed warm bed for the evening. It’s starting to get cold down south :(
Monday morning we explored some of Port Fairy, even though it was cold and windy and a bit of stinging rain snuck its way in there too. We saw some wallabies and a beautiful light house. After that little walk, we hit the road and headed onto the GREAT OCEAN ROAD!!! I think it should be renamed and called the spectacularly-amazing-fantastic and great ocean road. This road took us two days to drive and its only about 350 kilometers. I could have easily squeezed in a third day, but that darn clock, it was a tickin’. So, the Great Ocean Road is amazing because its constantly changing by the wind and the water chipping and chiseling away at the landscape. I was a wee bit disappointed that one of the arches I wanted to see had fallen down just 14 months ago. Regardless, this stretch of the
country was completely breathtaking! Where the ocean’s sea meets the cliffs that be, it leaves much to see...and a whole lot to take in and ponder. God is the most creative artist I’ve ever had the pleasure to view so much of his work!
After two days of the Great Ocean Road, we finally made it to Melbourne!!
No comments:
Post a Comment