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October 24, 2004
Surfs Up, Mate!
Well the day sure got off to a rousing start. We were supposed to be in the city by 8 or 8:15 at the latest. So Sharon, Caroline, Krista & I called for a taxi around quarter to 8, which we figured would leave us plenty of time, especially since the cab got to us pretty quickly (much better than the 30-45 minutes we were waiting for a cab last night to take us to the farewell dinner, grr). But first he misunderstood which way we said we wanted to go, so instead of taking us in on the freeway, it was a long, rather slow, traffic light-filled avenue. And then when we got to the city, traffic was snarled and we couldn't get to Melbourne Uni to meet everyone else because practically every street was blocked off, either due to construction or the Nike Fun Run. So we finally just had the cabbie drop us off at some street corner, and made Jodee and the buses come pick us up, somewhere around 8:45. So yeah, all the Melbourne Uni IFSA-Butler kids probably hated us, but it wasn't our fault. Nice relaxing way to start the day, yeah.
So we finally made it out of Melbourne and down to the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road was completed back in 1939, and stretches from Torquay (just west of Geelong) all the way to Warranambool along the southern coast of Victoria. It's one of the most traveled stretches of road in the world, and one of Australia's biggest tourist attractions. Our first stop along the Great Ocean Road was at world-famous Bells Beach, just west of Torquay (strangely pronounced tor'-KEE). In the 1991 movie "Point Break," Patrick Swayze's trying to get to Bells Beach, and finally reaches it at the end of the movie -- only the actual filming location is not Bells Beach of course, but rather some beach in California. Lame. Especially when in the film, they depict Bells Beach as a cove with lots of tall pine trees, when as you can see from the picture at right it's a straight stretch of beach, with definitely no pine trees to be seen. Seeing the real Bells Beach was much better. :-)
We then kept on going down the Great Ocean Road, past some great views, and through the town of Anglesea until we got to Lorne, which was our surfing destination for the day. But first we went up into the temperate rainforest a few k's north of Lorne to take a hike to the beautiful Erskine Falls, pictured at left. I went rock-hopping and log-bridging up the river to get a better view of the waterfall, and managed to get a few good photos. We also took a short hike along the Lemonade Creek track through some eucalypt forests, before having a nice picnic for lunch at Blanket Leaf Picnic Area, at the end of the track.
After lunch we went back down the hill to Lorne, for the day's main activity -- surfing! I had never been surfing before, and was somewhat apprehensive about it. But after putting on a wetty (wetsuit) and being given a surf board, we got about 15 minutes of basic instructions (since most of us had never surfed before), such as how to ride the board and other safety tips, before we hit the water to test out our skills. I was fearing the water would be cold, but it actually wasn't that bad, especially with a wetty on. To start with we weren't supposed to go deeper than waist- or chest-deep, and we had to surf between two posted flags on the beach, as on one side of the flags were rather sharp rocks that the waves could bash you against, and on the other side was a pretty good rip, a very strong current which would pull you straight out to sea. At any rate, I think on my second go of catching a wave I was actually able to ride it all the way into shore, riding flat on my stomach. 
It was so exhilarating to speed into shore with the wave while having it crash over you! A few more go's left me with varying degrees of success of trying to ride a wave in while sitting on my knees (the next step towards trying to stand upright). Eventually I got a really good one on my knees, but not before taking a few 'nosedives,' and getting spun and tumbled underwater like a washing machine by the waves (but I didn't get owned by the waves as badly as I did at Costa del Sol in Spain in 2000, hehe). Once I even ended up with a large mouthful of saltwater though, that wasn't fun. So even though I never got around to even attempting standing up (since I couldn't reliably get up on my knees without having the board tip over), it was probably the most fun I've had in Australia, it was awesome!! I don't know if I'll make it surfing again here in Australia, but I definitely would like to at some point, now that I've done it once. :-) In the picture at left, it's Krista, me, Caroline, and Sharon (who really didn't like wearing a wetsuit, and so took it partly off as soon as she got out of the water, hehe).
Once we were all done with our learn-to-surf session we started heading back to Melbourne, and stopped at Point Roadknight Beach in Anglesea to have a nice barbecue supper (or tea, as it's called in Aussie lingo). A couple of us wandered from the beach in search of some cool pictures from the rocky Pt Roadknight, and we were treated with several! Although I must admit that walking out there in my thong-sandals made for some interesting footing on the jagged rocks, especially when my feet and sandals got wet, hehe. The bbq was good too, although there wasn't any bread left for me to put my roo baggers (kangaroo sausages) in, oh well. After being dropped off at Melbourne Uni in the city, we said goodbye to Jodee, since we might not see her again, it was kinda sad. Then we took a taxi back to Monash at 9:30, and fortunately it wasn't nearly as stressful as the one in the morning.
In short, I've decided that the Great Ocean Road is an absolute must for my parents to see, or at least for me to go see again. Next time I wanna make it further down the road, past Apollo Bay and Cape Otway and on to Port Campbell National Park, home of the Twelve Apostles and London Bridge rock formations just offshore from the Great Ocean Road. One of my goals in my remaining month in Australia is to see a sunset at the Twelve Apostles, just like I've seen on so many gorgeous postcards (some of which at least a couple of you have received) and calendars down here.
Well I'm totally worn out from the day's events. I'm gonna sleep very well tonight. One thing of note, in addition to the Red Sox winning Game 1 of the World Series (go Sox!!), is that a federal appeals court has reversed an unlawful lower court's decision that would've allowed Ohio voters to go to any precinct in their county, instead of requiring them to report to their specific precinct's polling place. So thankfully the rule of law has once again prevailed, and the chances of voter fraud will be much reduced.
Posted by Jared at October 24, 2004 11:44 PM