Victoria Victoria

On Friday morning, I joined a tour bus to visit the sights of Victoria, outside Melbourne. As much as I would have liked to drivethere, my pocket wouldn't allow so. I was the last to be picked up by the bus, and at 8am, when I boarded and looked around, the company onthe bus didn't look too promising. Sigh. Then, at our first stop and tea break, we bumped into another tour bus run by the same operator. I noticed two Pakistani men in that group, and wondered why I didn't have any interesting company on mine. Oh well. Once the tea break was over, our driver tells us that the 2 Israeli girls from our bus have found friends in the other bus, and have exchanged places with the PakiBois. Oh my god! Careful what you wish for, Cas!

Well, so now that we got the interesting company to last the day (which was a very long one, I assure you), let us start the story of Victoria and Great Ocean Road. Pictures say a thousand words, they say. I will say the other hundred in between.

Anyway, the bus started from Melbourne, traveled westward to Geelong (Victoria's second largest town) and stopped at Narana, an aboriginal exhibition center. We heard some very interesting stories about boomerangs and hunting and didgeridoos and kangaroos. Tres cool.

After that, we reached the coast line of western Victoria and joined the Great Ocean Road. And there began, the 200 km stretch on the winding road, which kisses and teases the ocean all along. Words and photos don't do justice to the beauty of the Great Ocean Road. It was
exquisite.

We crossed by lots of small villages, heard some interesting commentary and some not-so-interesting tales. Each road had a story, even story had a song, each song had a smile. Finally, we stopped for lunch, where I picked up my falafel roll and went down to the beach for a sun-drenched lunch. How poetic.

After lunch, we left the ocean for some time, and ventured inland, into some temperate rainforests. Bordering the rainforests, were lines of eucalyptus trees, and koalas perched on them. The driver made some Lord-of-the-Rings jokes after we crossed some huge beech trees with caved bases big enough to fit 'em hobbits.


Next stop, was the ever famous, 12 Apostles. Firstly, there aren't really 12 of them. There were 9, and 1 collapsed recently. So in the bright sun, and among bright blue waves, stand the 8 rock formations which are impressive enough to leave you in awe. And regret that you didn't pay the 60 bucks extra for a helicopter view.

After that, we headed off to the Loch Ard Gorge – the scene of the Loch Ard shipwreck. The gorge has a small bay beach below, and caves around the beach. And an interesting story about the 2 survivors of the ship wreck.

By this time, I had seen enough rocks to last me for some time, but I still managed to drag myself to the last one – The London Bridge. The two sections seen in the photo were joined by rocks at one point of time, not too long ago, and that section suddenly collapsed one fine day. Thankfully, nobody was injured in that disaster.

By 6pm, I realized once again, why I don't like taking tours. It is because they feed you more than you can chew. I was tired and a bit bored by now, so the return journey consisted of a beautiful sunset and a good nap. By the time I was back at Urban Central, it was 9:30pm. Yes, that is how long the day was.

However, that didn't stop me from having a good shower and change, and then meeting up with my new Irish acquaintances at the pub below. Stories were exchanged and fun was had, over Smirnoff ice and Victorian wine. It turned out to be, after all, quite a good Friday (no pun intended).