Sunday, April 3, 2011

Up in the air (Melbourne - Great Ocean Road)

I can’t believe it’s been nearly three weeks since I last updated my blog. It looks like my life is getting boring again…just kidding. I do work most of the time and I am too tired to go on the road and explore the world around me. This is actually such a shame, but I will make sure that I do some more things before heading to my next destination Tasmania :)
I finally managed last week to book the Great Ocean Road tour for yesterday. Luckily it seems that I made the right choice with the operator of the tour, it was such a great and fun tour:
I booked as well the helicopter for the tour and was so excited to fly the first time in my life in a helicopter that I couldn’t sleep properly the night before. I was really tired when I had to get up at 6am and headed towards the meeting point in the city.
The first stop was the Bells Beach, one of Australia’s famous surfing beaches, world renowned for the Rip Curl Surfing Pro. Unfortunately they had built up some construction works in front of the beach, so the view was limited. But the art on the toilet house wall was great ;)  

On the way to the Bells beach we saw some Kangaroos jumping around, but because we were driving and on a time limit we didn’t stop for pictures, so I just have the memories of this event, which is awesome :)
The actual Great Ocean Road starts just after Torquay, where we have been given the opportunity to learn more about the history.




This was followed by a stop at the Cape Otway Lighthouse. The tour guide was real fun and told us some funny stories about the traditional owners, the Gadabanud peoples.





We passed through the coastal cities Lorne, Apollo Bay and Port Campbell. During the whole tour we always had such a great view of the ocean or the wild life around us. I would absolute recommend this tour to anyone who is in Melbourne.
After that we stopped near a forest, where we were able to see some Koalas in their natural habitat. Sooo cute, I wish I could have taken one home to cuddle.






We continued to the rainforest where we took a quick stroll and enjoyed the scenery, of course not to be compared with the tropical rainforest in Asia but nice anyway.





The next stop was finally the Twelve Apostles at the Port Campbell National Park with a view of the famous and uniquely formed rock stacks. I was the only person on the tour that actually booked the helicopter. As soon as we arrived me and the tour guide headed towards the helicopter area. They normally have three people on each helicopter. There were only one couple waiting for the next round and because they booked the extended flight, I was allowed to join them, even if I only booked the short flight. How lucky am I? :D The view was amazing and I recorded as well a quick video for my fans out there:








As soon as I got back I walked down to the rocks and tried to make some awesome pictures and enjoy the scenery. The weather was ok for the day, I wish it would have been sunnier during the day; I was freezing most of the time. Good thing I took my jacket with me…





The next stop was the Loch Ard Gorge and we learned about the history of the Shipwreck Coast with a stroll along this historic beach.






The last stop for the tour was the collapsed London Bridge, where we took some group pictures :)



We finally headed towards home and only stopped for a little snack on the way. The noodles were really yummy :)

It was a long and exhausting day and I had to sleep a lot last night, luckily we had a time change and I had one hour extra to enjoy my “comfy” bed.
And now a promise to all my friends and family in Germany, the next blog entry will be in German. I miss you all very much and hope that some of the postcards have arrived already. Somehow I can't belive that it has been nearly two month since I arrived and that I only have another 10 month left on my journey, time is running too fast. I really enjoy my time here, but I am happy when I finally can move on and see more from Australia and its people. At this point, a big thank you to everyone in Melbourne that made my time here memorable ;)

Read you soon again with some more adventure.


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