The Great Ocean Road, pt.2

April 13th

The next morning, we take a dip in Parker's Inlet, which is about as cold as The Bay of Fundy (and for those not in the know, that = very cold, indeed) before cruising down to The Twelve Apostles.
It's a beautiful day and the twisty road elicits giggles from me at nearly every turn -- a nervous reaction, which ultimately makes me laugh more because how silly is it to laugh when you're scared?

In the afternoon, we traverse The Otway Fly, a tree-top walk through the rainforest. It's cool, but the structure is made of metal and with all the people walking on it, the sound is not unlike three dozen shopping trolleys [carts] being crashed through the forest. Not exactly serene, as David points out.

***

That night, a meal at a roadhouse wins out over chocolate and crackers.
"Now you can say you've been to an authentic outback pub."
We have delicious burgers with a pot of beer, and I lose horribly at pool.

***

Our trip until this point has been limited on the music front. I brought my iPod, but David's iTrip is notoriously temperamental and decided not to work from the outset. That left us with the four cds he happened to have in the glove compartment and no radio after the first hour or so outside Melbourne.

But that last night, fast asleep at the campsite near Johanna Beach, I dreamed I got the iTrip to work. I rolled over and in my foggy half-awake haze told David I knew I could get the iPod to work.

A few hours later, I my dream-skills to the test: iSuccess.

***

On the way back, we stop at Mait's Rest and do a short hike through the rainforest, this time without the clamour. We agree it's vastly superior to The Fly.

And koalas! I saw so many koalas. There's one particular curve in the road that has a whole grove of gum trees and koalas hanging out all over. It's a good thing they were well out of reach because I reallyreallyreally wanted to hug one. Viciousness be damned.

***

We stopped at Bells Beach for the very tail-end of the Rip Curl Pro Surf and Music Festival, in time to squint out the final runs, hear the weekend's top winners, and catch a bit of Ash Grunwald's set.
"Now you can say you've been to Bells Beach AND Rip Curl Pro..."

Yup, that's right: no one can say I haven't seen stuff.