A
first time experience driving a car on the left hand side of the road with a
right-side steering wheel left me exasperated and frustrated. “Left, left…keep
to the left,” I kept telling myself. Most of the car’s controls are on
opposite sides as well. On more than one occasion, I indicated my intended lane
changes using the lever for the windshield wipers and, as dusk neared, turned
on my headlights using my right turn blinkers. On top of that, the heavily trafficked
road leading away from the Melbourne airport was under construction, so much of
the signage was missing.
Being old school, we had no GPS. Instead, we sniffed
our way using some paper maps from Google that I had copied before leaving home.
With luck, along with a couple of U-turns, various swings around a traffic
circle, and very clean windshields, we found our hotel in suburban Melbourne.
The
following morning, we headed to the southern coast and the famed Great Ocean Road in Australia's State of Victoria. We
first visited the iconic Twelve Apostles, rock sentinels withstanding centuries
of pounding surf and southern ocean storms. In fact, the area is often called
the Shipwreck Coast where many boats and their passengers met their awful
demise.
While
called the Twelve Apostles, there are actually only seven (recently eight, but
one eroded and has since disappeared). Perhaps Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
were too busy writing the New Testament to take the time to stand here in the
ocean for us tourists to gawk at.
Up and
down the road we travelled between Apollo Bay and Port Campbell. The area is
popular with tourists from China so many of the signs are in their language.
Last week was the Chinese New Year and, we were told, the road was bumper to bumper
traffic. Being here one week later, we were blessed with relatively traffic
free roads.
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| The Great Ocean Road often has more curves than a Stormy Daniels' photo shoot |
Many
turn offs led to more vistas and interesting rock formations. One in particular,
the “London Bridge,” has an interesting story. In 1990, a couple of tourists
walked out to the far end of the rock that protruded into the ocean when,
behind them, a segment that connected it to the mainland collapsed into the
ocean leaving them stranded on the brand new island that formed underneath
them. Three hours later, they were rescued by helicopter.
 |
| The "London Bridge." The gap is where the rock collapsed leaving tourists stranded on the new island. |
We
finished our tour of the Great Ocean Road with a beach walk. The Gibson Steps
led us down off of the cliff sides to the salt spray at the shoreline. There
was nothing between us and the Antarctic but the cold blue water that refreshed
us on this very hot and dry day.
We
walked in what seemed a forever amount of isolation and solitude. Mindful of
the time, we scrambled around a rocky headland and into a safe zone before it succumbed
to the late afternoon rising tide.
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