Apollo Bay to Melbourne

Waking up in the penthouse was not particularly easy…at least for me. The bed, much like the rest of the apartment, did not disappoint. However, after waking up at the back of 9, there was a reasonably rushed morning of packing and cleaning before check out at 10.

After leaving the penthouse, we decided to have a wee walk along the Beach at Apollo Bay. With the late arrival and the desire to get the absolute most from the house, we had not had a chance to visit the beach. So, after moving the car 30m down the street to the beach, we had a wee wander.

After leaving Apollo Bay, we drove for about an hour along one of the most scenic and enjoyable roads roads I’ve ever been on. Every bend gave a new look at the Southern Ocean with amazing expanses of rock and beaches, each as fantastic as the last. The bends were also a lot of fun to drive with about 50 km of bend after bend…Amy didn’t have quite as much fun as all the twists and turns started to disagree with her…nobody mentioned that these roads may require a motion sickness tablet!

We stopped at a number of little towns on our journey back to Melbourne. The first stop was at the town of Lorne, about 30km down from Apollo Bay. Before we left Paul and Jen’s house, Jen’s parents had visited the Great Ocean Road and stayed in Lorne. So, as the mature adults that we are, we pulled up on the Main Street in Lorne and, instead of exploring the town, we headed straight for the play-park…you’ll be happy to know it was amazing fun however, on the swings, I had a minor issue with stopping as flip-flops dont hold a lot of grip, especially on bark…

After a quick wander round the shops, we headed back to the car and onto the small town of Anglesea. Pretty nice wee place with a huge beach. Also, the waves were picking up here and a number of surf school vans were parked along the waterfront. After a wee walk along the beach and a stop for some lunch, we headed onto a place called ‘Bells Beach’. This was the famous setting for the film ‘Point Break’ and, as a bit of surfing hotspot, we were able to catch a few guys ‘catching some waves’. Im starting to get a bit jealous so, the first real opportunity we get, i’m going to give it a bash. As its still only Spring, i’ll unfortunately still need to wear a wetsuit…

Us overlooking the surf at Bells Beach – if you look closely you can see some of the surfers behind us

Bells Beach itself

After leaving Bells Beach we headed off to our final stop along the Great Ocean Road, Torquay. Torquay is a renowned surfing town (both Billabong and Rip Curl were started here) and when the waves are good, it’s clear to see why. Large open beach with plenty of bay for surfing and spectating alike. It was a really nice wee town so, after a quick perusal of the shops, we headed down to ‘Frenchy’s’ ice cream parlour for a wee treat (given the good weather) before heading on.

After we left Torquay, we headed back along the road until we reached a sign for the Mornington Peninsula ferry. As we were due to return to the East side of Melbourne (the Great Ocean Road is due West of the city) and chose to drive through the centre on the way out, the Mornington Peninsula ferry allows you to leave the Great Ocean Road at the end and finish up in the South East of Melbourne. With us due to drive through the Melbourne rush hour if we didn’t get the ferry, this was a better plan all round.

After the ferry journey (which we were lucky to catch as were the last car on!), we had an hour and 15 minute car journey north which saw us reach Jen and Paul’s house a little after 6. After a quick turn around for me, I left the house at 6.20 and after a sprint along the quiet berwick streets (I’d changed to bare foot as running in flip-flops is near on impossible), I caught the 6.30 train by about a minute – the train would take me into Melbourne city centre where i would meet Matt and Nick, some school pals who had just moved to Aus for a year. After a small technical glitch, I was able to get in touch with Matthew eventually and met up with the boys a little after 8 (the train journey was over an hour to Melbourne).

Melbourne at sunset

As none of us had had any dinner yet, we grabbed some dinner and a beer not far away from the train station in a pedestrianised side-street. After a some dinner and a good catch up, Nick and Matt took me on a bit of scenic tour of Melbourne , with the first stop leading down ‘graffiti alley’ to a small bar. They’ve both only been in Melbourne for 6 weeks and, as they live in a place out of town called St Kilda, they are still discovering Melbourne as much as I am. The pub was pretty good however, with the barman indicating that he had pints on sale for $5 (which we were more than happy to purchase), we quickly realised that paying a bit more for a pint wasn’t a bad thing sometimes.

After that pub, we headed into ‘China Town’ where the boys had heard of another bar…this one down another side alley. With a bit of trepidation, we ventured down but, similar to the last pub, the boys were on the money and we were able to grab a final drink before home time called. With an hour long train ride ahead of me, we said our good byes at about 11.20 so I could grab the 11.30 train. As we have another couple days in Melbourne, there may be another chance to catch up with them…watch this space.

Catching up with Matt and Nick

Whilst I was galavanting in Melbourne, Amy was off….

I’ve been instructed to ‘write about my evening’ which consisted of dinner with Jen at a local Thai restaurant and lots of tea and chat. It was great to have a chance to catch up properly after such a long time!