I can't say I was sorry to leave Melbourne. Our apartment was beginning to feel as grungy as the town. It was nice to be in a car for the first time in 6 weeks (at least for the first couple of hours – by the time we hit Adelaide approximately 700 miles and 20 hours later we were ready to ditch the car).

2 hours out of Melbourne we hit the beginning of the Great Ocean Road and began our winding route along the Victorian coast for the next 200 kilometers (~125 miles). According to the Australian tourist board, we would find a more beautiful vista around every corner. Although they were right about the scenery, they didn't mention that the "Great" Ocean Road is a two-lane road with limited opportunities for passing and lots of slow drivers. We started out as one of those slow drivers as we enjoyed the scenery and Bill got comfortable with driving on the left along a windy cliff side road. However, we quickly tired of the ~40km/hour (~25mph) pace and Bill started tailgating and looking for questionable places to pass. He didn’t take too many risks but I’m sure he would have preferred to be driving his Infiniti G37 vs the underpowered Nissan SUV we rented. Between the curves, Bill’s semi-aggressive driving and trying to read guidebooks on the next place to stop and hike or see a view, I was feeling a little nauseous.

Our first stop was Bell's Beach, famous for its surf culture and the founding of Rip Curl. We watched the surfers from the top of a cliff for a few minutes then headed back on the road for our next stop - Erskine Falls a 40m (~120 ft) waterfall outside a town called Lorne (which Mr Hinz, was the most beautiful town we have ever seen :-) . The falls themselves were pretty and involved a bit of a hike to get to the bottom over some fairly slippery rocks. Unfortunately, I decided to slip on one of them but don’t worry, I was mostly successful in sacrificing myself to protect my camera. I suffered some minor bruising; the camera took a ding on the lens but still works fine.

With the slow driving and the hike to the base of the waterfall, we were behind schedule when we headed for the Cape Otway Lighthouse. It was a bit off our route, and when we arrived, we discovered that they were closing in less than 1 hour and they wanted $20 each to be able to walk to the point and climb the lighthouse. Clouds had moved in and it had started to rain so we decided to skip it to allow more time at the 12 Apostles. The side trip wasn’t a loss though as we saw several koalas up in the trees along the road. Some were all balled up sleeping, but I got pics of a couple that were awake with my new zoom lens. It was fun finding them. I looked for kangaroos the whole trip, but the only ones I ever saw were carcasses. They are like deer here, with roo crossing signs posted every so often.

The coast did get more dramatic as we drove. It was rugged and sweeping for miles, with tall sand stone cliffs overlooking a beautiful blue ocean. The actions of the wind and the waves have made some spectacular views and the Australians have done an impressive job with the facilities allowing people to see them. The Twelve Apostles are the highlight of the drive. They are huge rock formations jutting up out of the water. We stopped at two main overlook spots to take pictures. At one, they were running 15-minute helicopter rides for aerial views. They had quite the operation with 4 helicopters cycling through almost like a conveyor belt for tourists.

We had identified a few other potential stops for hikes and vistas but between the twisty road, slow drivers and the stops we already made, we had barely completed 1/3 of the distance and it was now 4:00pm. We needed to pick up the pace so we skipped the rest of the stops and focused on making time. We had a pretty good dinner at 12 Rocks in Port Campbell and finally arrived at our hotel in Port Fairy at 10pm.

We were back on the road by 10am. The route from Port Fairy to Adelaide does not follow the ocean, is not winding, and does allow for passing, so we made much better time but it still took us 9 hours to cover the 600 km. We had rented another apartment and I was very happy with this one. It was super nice with two bedrooms, a well-equipped kitchen, a nice bathroom with a big shower, a patio, a full size couch and wood floors. It was the first time our accommodations have been nice enough to make us want to stay in the room and relax, so we took advantage and avoided the worst part of the heat wave that was hitting Adelaide.

(Part of spending time in the apartment was eating in our full kitchen. Generally that went well but our last night Dessa was re-heating our left over pizza. Her Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion skills need some work as she put the oven on its highest setting and burnt my Pizza)

Adelaide is home to 2 things we did manage to enjoy. Haigh’s is the oldest chocolatier in the country (they are celebrating their Centennial later this year) and the free tour was informative and very tasty. Bill sucked up to the tour guide by asking lots of questions but I know he was simply trying to get more free samples (I think it worked). Their chocolate is very good – smooth, creamy and rich so we also bought some which we quickly went through over the next several days.

As luck would have it, we just happened to be in town for the beginning of the 65th annual Fringe Festival. I had never heard of this festival but it is performance arts focused and similar events are held in most of the major cities in Australia and plenty other places around the world. The idea originated in Edinburgh in 1947, and the US actually holds more fringe festivals than any other country. How have we missed this?

The Adelaide festival is huge. It is an un-censored smorgasbord of arts including cabaret, theater, music, comedy, burlesque, circus, dance, and so on. It is an opportunity for emerging artist and new material and is supported by local business to make the ticket prices as low as possible. The venues are as varied as the acts, pop up tents with stage backdrop entrances, buses, bars, parks, warehouses, just about anywhere they can gather. It is held over 24 days, with more than 1000 different acts, 4000 artists, at over 300 venues.

The Festival kicked off with a night parade which is something else I had never heard of but I think it is a great idea. It had cooled off a bit and there was a nice breeze and the crowd was gathering more than 2 hours before the parade started. Street performers wandered the route to keep the throngs entertained while we waited. The parade itself was kind of like movie trailers at the theater as it was made up of several of the acts being performed. Everything was lit with LED lights and it had a definite "Carnivale" feel with lots of hip music played.

Similar to the parade, the festival has a stage set up downtown where acts can come to drive up business. Apparently just about anybody can put on a show. We met various people that tried to get us come see their shows and several seemed to be about nothing. We watched a preview show where a chick from the US/Canada tried Vegemite for the first time. She actually toasted some bread, spread it, and ate some. That was the show. What???? If you have never had Vegemite, don't try it! It is awful! It’s very salty and apparently an Australian staple. Bill made me eat some. Yuck!!!

After the parade we saw our first show - a comedy act and then on Saturday night we saw one of the most popular circus style shows (no animals). It was hard to pick two out of all those performances. Fortunately we enjoyed both. The comedy was funny and quite dirty but of course what else would you expect from a show called Shaggers. The circus show had lots of impressive gymnastic and balancing acts, singing, comedy, and at the end a flash of full frontal male nudity (dang it I missed it because somebody's big fat head was in the way) (she isn’t talking about my head, it was the guy in front of her). Before the show we wandered around the park across the street, renamed The Garden of Un-Earthly Delights for the festival. It was really cool with lights, lampshades and umbrellas hanging from the trees and oddball pieces of worn out furniture scattered about for seating. There were tons of food stalls, vendors, show venues, and a carnival. It was a good place to spend Valentines Day.

We liked Adelaide. It was a nice balance of Sydney and Melbourne. Not too sophisticated and not too funky. Of course it helped that I loved the apartment. We’re now off to stop 4 of our Australian tour, Port Lincoln.

As always, higher resolution photos are available on Flikr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bill_and_ dessa/sets/