12/7/10

Had to get a early start to the day since I had to be at the group tour pick up site at 7:30am and it was a ten minute walk from my hostel. I had set my alarm on my watch for 6:40 am and I was surprised to hear another alarm go off at 5:40 am. It appears that one of the guys who is also in this four bed share dorm room works. I had not gotten a chance to talk to either of the guys as they were both asleep when I returned last night. It appears he does some type of manual labor or something since he was wearing one of the bright colored work vest over his T-shirt. I gladly went back to sleep until my alarm went off. When I did get up I packed my day bag and set off for the pick up site. I arrived about five minutes early and when I checked in at the office they told me I would be on bus #2 with Erin as my tour guide. Shortly after this I was on the bus and we were off to go on the Great Ocean Road. The bus held 20 passengers but today was not quite full with 16. This meant that I got lucky and got my own seat. Our first stop was Bells Beach which is the original home of a bunch of the surf companies like Rip Curl and Quicksilver. It is also said to be the site of the last scene of the movie Point Break. The tour guide asked if any of us remember the cheesy 80's movie Point Break. WOW.....stop she must have meant classic 80's movie. She pointed out to us that in the movie they said they were here but it was actually shot somewhere else. Someone had already told me (Dennis maybe) this fact so it was not news to me At this stop we all got out and took a few pictures and two surfers had just arrived and were going out to catch a few waves. Then we headed back up from the beach to the bus and had coffee and tea and cookies. I decided to have some tea and of course cookies. I was hoping that the tea would help keep me awake since I know my track record of falling asleep in vehicles when I do not intend to. The only thing I do not understand is I always fall asleep except on the overnight buses where I intend to sleep. Before I got in the bus to leave a couple came up to me and said you must be from Minnesota as well. I was wearing one of my lifetime torchlight race T-shirts and I was so surprised to hear they were from MN. I have not met that many travelers from the states in the last month at all. I would chat with them a little at every stop going forward they also live in Minneapolis. His name is Ross and her name started with a M so I will call her Melanie since I have no clue. They have been traveling around like crazy Ross started his own web advertisement business and then got his wife to join him and they lived in San Diego for 6 months and have been traveling the previous five months hitting most of Europe and now OZ. Pretty crazy cool and I asked about Asia and they said that was the next stop and they would go home at the end of January. Our next stop was the Split Point Lighthouse which is still in operation to this day. When I got here I thought of my Grandma Ruth who has passed away but was very found of lighthouses and thinking about her brought a smile to my face knowing that she would also have enjoyed this but it also made me miss her. Took a few pictures then headed back on the road. The next stop was the Great Ocean Road Arch which was nice and a few pictures taken and back on the road. Then I found out that the road is about 243 Km long and was built from 1918 to around 1932. It was built as a Memorial for the soldiers from Australia who lost their lives in World War I. It was also a project to get the soldiers who returned from the war work. Erin told a funny story about one crew was working on the road and a nearby ship had got hung up on a reef. The only way the ship could free itself of the reef was to unload its cargo. The workers helped to unload the cargo which happened to be barrels of beer and crates of wine and spirits. It was said that no work was done for two weeks as the workers just drank. The next stop was the Kennet River and I was able to walk up a dirt trail and see 4 wild Koala's sleeping in some trees. I had a sandwich and then back on the road. The next stop was the rain forest walk. It had just rained and the trees dripped off rain but it was no longer raining out. The only thing of real interest on this walk is that this rain forest has the only snail that eats meat, our group was not lucky enough to spot any. The signs posted on the walk was for a big tree (cleaver name right) it was over 300 years old and very large the only problem is that it has since fallen over so it is not that great to see. Australia has only 2% of its land as rain forest today but the section I saw in Fraser island was much more scenic. After this stop the drive was inland more and you could not even see the ocean. It was a bit boring and I found myself dozing off. I woke up in time to see us once again approaching the coast and then we went and saw London Bridge (That is what the Sandstone Rock Structure is called). It was very neat and I am glad to be able to see it since the stone will eventually will washed away by the sea. The next stop was the Loch Ard Gorge this area was amazing I took a bunch of pictures and we were told the story of a ship wreck that took place in the early 1900's and only two survived it. A young apprentice on ship was able to float on a piece of wreckage and floated to shore at the Gorge. While he was on shore he heard a girl crying for help in the ocean and he swam in and saved her. Then we moved along to the 12 Apostles which now only 8 of which are still standing since the sea has taken down the others. I decided to pay a little extra money and go for my first helicopter ride which would take me over the 12 Apostles and also over the Loch Ard Gorge. We only had 45 minutes as a stop here and I waited for my turn to take the helicopter ride. I was told I would be able to sit in the front next to the pilot. The flight was great and I enjoyed the eight minute ride and as I was up you could see a big storm front coming our way. The pilot was nice and he told me that he once got lost in Mendota, MN and that he was originally from Canada. Once off the plane I had 10 minutes until I needed to be back on the bus so I ran to the observation points to see the 12 Apostles from the ground. I ran and stopped quickly to snap some pictures and then kept on running. I just barely made it all the way out and back in the ten minutes and I was sweating like crazy. As I made it back to stop at the toilet before getting on the bus the storm front started to dump down rain like crazy. I was happy the bus pulled up close to pick a few of us up and then we started to make the two and a half hour journey back to Melbourne.

That night I was at the bar located within the hostel having a pitcher of beer and trying to catch up on my journal, I was doing fairly well until I needed to go the the bathroom. I did not want to shut down the computer and pack up everything so I asked I guy sitting next to me if he would watch my stuff quick while I ran to the bathroom. He did that for me and then when I came back I said thanks and went back to my journal, his friend rejoined him and they began talking to me. It turns out that her name is Penny and she is from Tasmania and his name is Kevin and he is from Whales in the UK. They had meet each other while working in the outback at a small grocery store. They were interesting to talk with and the next thing you know they told me to come up to their room and join a group of friends that were drinking and playing card games. I figured what the heck so I went and joined them. I met about another 10 people in the room they share and we all hung out and had a few drinks and that lead the group to decided to go out to a club. So much for a chill night and for some reason I had it in my head that I had to catch my plane to Sydney the next morning. We ended up having like 15 to 20 of us catch a tram and take it to China town. The club we went into was called Eurotrash Bar. Someone had mentioned that our big group should be able to get in free but it did not work out like that. I was hanging back a bit and saw that Penny and Kevin paid the $5 cover and were making their way in the club. Next thing I noticed was the two of them walking off away from the club. I yelled at them and got no reply and since I knew them the best out of the group I did not want to go in if they were leaving for the night. I caught up with them and found out that the bouncer had told penny she was too drink to come in and that she should go drink some water and take some time to sober up. Penny was very upset about this and she stormed into the nearest seven eleven to get a cup of water. Then the three of us headed back to the club. She was not in a good mood and was very mad and when I tried to joke around with her to lighten up the mood she told me that this was not funny. As much I hate this type of silly drama I waited the 10 minutes outside until she got the bouncer to let her in. The bouncer then told Kevin to keep an eye on her. The club was OK and fairly busy for a Tuesday night. It had two main levels the ground floor was the rap/hip hop dance music section with songs that I am familiar with and like. The next lever up by way of outside stairs was the more DJ dance techno type music and that is where the crowd I went with ended up since that is what they prefer. I had a few drinks and had a good time but after about two hours I decided to take off and head home. I walked out and grabbed a meat pie from a small shop and them got in a cab and had him take me back. I still was thinking that I had a early flight in the morning but I was starting to wonder about that since the dates just didn't seem right. I figured I would sleep for a few hours and figure it out at 5:30 am and if my flight was the next day I could pay for another night and go back to sleep.