Australia trip: Finally - our trip to Apollo Bay

Yikes!! It's May. We leave here in mid-June - well some of us do. Sue has decided to stay. Her visa is good until Feb 2011 so she's madly looking for a job that will give her more hours and is VERY excited.

I am really behind on our adventures so will try to get you caught up a little. Since being to Apollo Bay with Sandy, Mark was here for a week and we went on our trip to Koondrook.

Anyway, Sandy and I continued our trip south. Easter week-end in Australia is a BIG holiday. It is the end of summer, cool enough to be outside and many people have four or five days off work.

It was hard to find a place to sleep. None of the hotels near Melbourne on the Great Ocean Road would rent a room for less than three nights – Friday, Saturday, Sunday – so we paid for three nights in Apollo Bay and stayed for two.

There were people everywhere. The traffic was bumper to bumper on the Great Ocean Road, which winds along the ocean – and I’m talking winds. We averaged about 30 kilometers an hour and there were cars everywhere.

There was road construction and single lane traffic over a bridge. These are the photos Sandy took from the car. As far as I'm concerned the 50 k sign is for a sports car that can corner like James Bond.

The highway was built as a work project after the war. It is a gorgeous view. But, I was driving on the WRONG side of the road in heavy traffic. There are pull-offs every kilometer or so and after most of them there are signs on both sides of the road saying “In Australia drive on the left.” My response to Sandy was “Oh great. If I have an accident it’s going to be running into some foreigner driving on the wrong side of the road. That foreigner was not me. Thankfully, I had driven a couple thousand kilometers, enough to stay on the left without a lot of thought. The times I have to think about it are when I am turning corners in the city and there aren't many cars. Following traffic is easier.

At one point I was pulled over for a random breath check. I had the window down about 1/2 way and the breathalyzer was in my mouth and the police man was saying "Random breath test - Blow until I tell you to stop." I blew until I was sure I couldn't blow any longer and was about to tell him that when he said I could stop. Sandy wondered where I got all the air. I did not even have a chance to take a deep breath. He looked at my drivers licence, did not ask for registration or passport and sent us on our way.

We managed to find our way to the Great Ocean Walk in spite of the tourist information people who kept telling us about 20 minute walks. I know Sandy and are small and look look like we might just be over 29, but we can walk for more than 20 minutes. We spent about four hours on the walk. We did not get trapped by tides, bitten by snakes or rained on.

You won't be surprised to hear that we were not tempted to touch the snakes - not that we saw any.

This is the beach where we started from Apollo Bay.

The Great Ocean Walk was quite a - you will see in this photo that my climbing was extreme. However, we did manage and took the following photos for your enjoyment.