Intermission

I decided to take a little break from the family in Melbourne to let my aunt recover from a week of having me. I headed off down the Great Ocean Road for five days to go and see what is described as one of the nicest drives in the world.

After picking up a car down in Melbourne, I headed South past Gelong on my was to the first stop Torquay. Torquay is a surf town and the home of the big Australian surf companies. Unfortunately the day I arrived it was raining so there weren't many people out surfing at all. I checked the two big surf beaches at Danger Point and Bells Beach. Bells had a few people out in the water but after waiting around for about an hour none of them had caught a wave. That afternoon I left the rainy beaches and headed for the town of Lorne. I camped in Lorne that evening, enjoying a nice cool evening in this small surf town.

The next morning I headed to the rain forests just North of Lorne to go and do some hiking. I drove up to Erskine Falls to check out the waterfall and head out for a walk through the rain forest. The falls were nothing compared to Victoria Falls but still were nice and serene. I headed out for a walk through the dense forests around the falls, enjoying the vast variety of plant life there. Returning from the walk, I headed off for my next destination, Otway National Park, where I would be camping that evening.

I arrived at Otway National Park and headed for the campsite. After putting up my tent I headed out for a walk along the Great Ocean Walk. This took me through the forests and beaches along the coastline. At the start of the walk they had a few signs warning about snakes and falling trees. Not far after walking past the signs, I came across a two meter snake sitting right there in the path where I was trying to walk. We started each other down for a minute and then the snake decided to crawl under the plank of wood I was supposed to walk on to avoid destroying this marshy area. I decided the best way to approach this now was to run across the plank as fast as possible using large leaps. In horrible triple jump fashion I made it across without any incident with the snake. This wouldn't be the only wildlife that I would see on my walk. I came across numerous koalas in the eucalyptus trees above me. These animals are cute and fuzzy, but really boring. The eucalyptus that they eat has a natural sedative in it that leaves these creatures stoned all day long. They just sit up in the trees eating and sleeping. The kangaroos that I ran into were much more active though. Once catching sight of me they would freeze and stare at me briefly before quickly hopping off into the bush. It was really cool seeing these animals in the wild, especially having a koala that liked the tree by my tent.

The next morning, after a refreshing swim in the lagoon near camp, I headed off to to more of the great ocean walk. I headed out from the Otway Lighthouse to head to a large abondoned beach. The walk first took me through some dense brush where I could hear the kangaroos hopping off as I aproached. I did was lucky enough to come across an Echidna (porcupine) that had buried itself in the sand as I approached, just leaving the spiky spines exposed. He didn't want to move from this protective position so I headed off for the beach. A one kilometer walk along the beach took me to Rainbow Falls. I'm not sure if you could really call this a waterfall, but it was a steady drip of water coming out of the cliffs right at the edge of the ocean. I walked along this 4 kilometer beach and unfortunately was unable to swim anywhere due to the strong currents and massive waves of the Tazman Sea. I headed back to the lighthouse and continued my drive to Johanna Beach. Again, I couldn't swim at this beach, but was able to camp up on the hill overlooking the beach along with a few hundred cows.

The next day I continued my trip along the Great Ocean Road, stopping to see sights like the Twelve Appostles, Loch Ard Gorge, and the Bay of Isles. The entire section of this drive was filled with the large waves of the Tazman Sea eating away at the cliffs of this picturesque coastline. Everywhere you looked it was beautiful. I left this section of coastline to head for Port Fairy, a small, old fishing village. I spent the afternoon walking around the town and the harbor before camping here for the evening.

The next morning I had to leave early to head back to Melbourne for my last days with the family there.