A quick shower, a patient wait to use the only washbasin, and a hurried exit on our part, managing to get AUD 45 of our AUD 55 back for the additional nights accommodation that we cancelled. In the car we perused the map and guidebook. We decided that we didn't need to stay in Melbourne another night and I booked us in to a hostel in Lorne, 11 kilometres into the Great Ocean Road which is a 300 kilometres stretch along the coast from Anglesea to Warrnambool. We drove to the Kings Domain and parked up, arranged accommodation for tomorrow night in an old jail and the following three nights in Adelaide and walked to the Shrine of Remembrance. We wandered around the Shrine for the best part of an hour, looking at the many names of soldiers whose lives were lost during World War I, flags and artefacts of the day. We took in the view from the balcony at the top of the Shrine of Melbourne CBD and then we perused the crypt. At 30 minute intervals the veterans hold a representative remembrance ceremony whereby a light is passed over the remembrance stone at the sound of the Last Post. Ian and I stood silent at this point opposite the war veteran.
The Royal Botanic Gardens then had our attention for the next 2 hours. The weather station at the entrance to the gardens declared a 31 per cent humidity and a temperature of 29 degrees. There were some pretty flowers in the gardens but the most amazing thing was the presence of 6,000 fruit bats which take over the treetops in the summer months. They were everywhere your eyes could see! On exiting the park the weather station declared it was 31 degress.
Our final stop was at Albert Park which hosts the Australian Grand Prix. We drove around as much of it as we could which wasn't much it has to be said but was enough for me to take a photograph of the pit lane. We then left Melbourne and began driving towards the Great Ocean Road. At Torquay we stopped for a late lunch and caught up with our journals. Lunch was very good and consisted of toasted turkish bread sandwiches, one with lamb and tzatziki and the other with chicken tikka masala and mint yoghurt. Just beyond Torquay we took a look at Bells Beach, a world famous surf beach, but there wasn't much surf around today. Then we moved on to the White Queen, a lighthouse at Aireys Inlet, which made a nice picture against the brilliant blue sky and the surrounding bushes were also home to several brightly coloured parrots.
We arrived in Lorne at 19:00 and paused on the beach for Ian to test the temperature of the water. I was busy photographing the sandstone on the beach and turned around to witness Ian waddling away from the surf like a penguin. It was highly entertaining!
Our accommodation for the night is the upstairs of a wood cabin, the sort you get at Hoseasons Holiday Parks, except that it is only the upstairs. The door outside opens up to reveal a vertical ladder which you have to struggle up with your bags while holding on with both hands. Needless to say we left our backpacks in the car and travelled light for the night. It's very cosy in the cabin 'though. It must be a complete nightmare for the cleaners! Still, tomorrow we're staying in a former jail so who knows what that mayu entail! On the balcony in front of the main hostel sits a couple of kookaburras so I filmed a kookaburra sitting in an old gum tree...
Today we travelled 162 kilometres from Melbourne to Lorne.
Dinner was eaten on a rooftop and went down nicely with a bottle of beer.
It's actually quite warm upstairs in the cabin. We will have to have the window open as soon as the light goes off in the hope that some cool air will come in but the flies and moths and spiders will remain outside...
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.