Day 1 - Great Ocean Road / Geelong

The plane touched down beautifully on the soil of Melbourne just as the in-flight screen read 8 degrees outside. That sure prompted us to get ready our jackets/blazers. Daniel bravely waved away the need for extra gear -- he insisted his pullover would survive any cold.

Immigration clearance was smooth except that a manual check was required for Daniel's baggage. Hence out came Daniel's clothes, toiletries... and unmentionables. A good ten minutes was spent for the check, and didn't serve to achieve anything except to upset Daniel's neat packing (the other three dudes just shoved everything into the bag much to Daniel's chagrin).

One peculiar observation was we had to submit our passports/immigration forms twice: once for each of the two staff who stood barely 10m apart. One of them was the immigration officer who checked our passports, and another submission was to an officer from the agriculture department who glanced at our imports declaration form and assigned us to the proper queue for baggage check. We thought the second officer was really redundant, but John was quick to point out that having two officers instead of one was necessary to contain the cost of social welfare arising from too much unemployment (apparently the unemployed get a support fund from John Howard's Government).

After clearing Immigration, we rushed to loosen our stretched bladders and picked up a few brochures from the tourist information counter. The lady staff at the counter was exceptionally helpful and pleasant. The friendliness extended to almost every local that we met on our entire trip. Take for example, when asked for more details on the Melbourne Observatory Tower where one could supposedly have a bird eye's view of the entire cityscape, we were promptly advised to visit the top floor of a particular hotel where it offers the same view too, with no entrance fee. Shamefully none of us took down which hotel it was so we ended up forgetting to check it out eventually.

The moment came... to step into the cool 5am Melbourne air. Gingerly the four dudes stepped out and met the full force of the Melbourne gusts. Daniel who was the least clothed among the four hurriedly brought out his windbreaker, bearing the brunt of the others' jokes.

After posing with a couple of statue exhibits outside, we were quickly frozen to the bone and desperately searched for a place to take cover from the wintry cold. Our eyes rested on the Budget Car Rental sign and we jumped for joy. Upon stepping in, we could feel the icicles melting from our nostrils, and our ears slowly gaining life again. The nice car rental staff gave us a free upgrade without hesitation after telling us that the Nissan X-trail we wanted was all smashed up and crashed from its previous foray. We jumped for joy after learning that we were assigned a Nissan Patrol... all for the next three days! Better than what we expected!

With much excitement from the newly found Nissan Patrol babe, we made our foray to our first destination at Geelong. John had the honour of being the first driver to tame the monster truck, and he was very careful in handling her. Stepping on the oil pedal slightly, he was initially caught off guard by the immense acceleration power it gave. But before long, he was maneuvering with prose and cruising his way comfortably down the freeways. The peak hour traffic was moderate and there was no traffic jam thankfully.

Our lady -- Nissan Patrol

Daybreak was chasing us as we drove westward along Princes Highway. An hour later, we reached Geelong town -- the second largest city in Victoria state after Melbourne. Perhaps it was too early in the morning as the motel's reception was not open yet. Hence, the four Hungry Jacks drove around the city and ended up having McDonald's for breakfast. We noted that the menu was different from Singapore. One thing that struck us was the Veggie Meal and other choices that are supposedly healthier: more greens, diet wrap etc. Three of us went for the unhealthiest choice of bacon set while Paul settled for an equally unhealthy meal (can't remember what meal he ordered but it definitely is unhealthy).

There was a wide spread of butter/jam/honey spread laid in front of the counter, so we delightfully helped ourselves, enough to stock up over the next few days. Little do we knew that the next meal would come only 12 hours later.

A bird taking a daybreak rest on the McD sign

Daniel sipping away on his cup of tea

As we made our way back to the motel, we were delighted to find that the motel was now open. To give a feel of how the motel looked like, it was more of a driving inn, which fits its name of "Rippleside Motor Inn" perfectly. There were twelve rooms in total, laid in a horizontal fashion, each with a parking lot right in front of the room.

The motel was run by an old couple who stayed in the compound, which meant that we could have banged on their door and woke them up so we could get some shelter from the freezing cold. Of course being gentlemen, we didn't. The old man was very courteous. Immediately as we stepped into the reception, he said he was already expecting us, and asking which of us was Andrew (the hotel was booked under his name). He sure prepared his rooms and knew his guests well.

After checking in, we unloaded our luggage and wasted no time in starting on our Great Ocean Road tour. We knew we had a tight schedule and shorter days in winter meant that every second counts. Paul took over John as the driver, but Daniel remained as the navigator. We headed southwest of Geelong and headed towards Port Campbell to start our Great Ocean Road tour.

Along the way, we passed by rows and rows of green pastures dotted with occasional black cows, brown cows, golden cows and every other kind of cows -- except for the white-with-black-patch cows that we were grown accustomed to thanks to the Fernleaf advertisement (the one that compared Singaporeans as cows). We were also delighted to catch glimpses of a beautiful rainbow formation. The rainbow arched across the sky, and we could see the entire arch from ground to ground.

Pastures dotted with cows -- white, black, and brown

Rainbow arching from ground to ground

After a 90-minute drive, we reached Port Campbell. Spotting an 'i' (tourist information centre), we parked our car neatly and got ready to venture in to pick up a few brochures and some advice on how to start the Great Ocean Road drive. All of a sudden, the heavens poured its torrents of blessings on us. We did not have an umbrella, so we waited for it to subside and braced the drizzle to the information centre.

Map of Port Campbell Discovery Walk

We made a small detour of about 300m to view the magnificent London Bridge. It was named because the structure resembles... or rather, used to resemble it. Nature decided to have its way and blew up a portion of it, leaving an island as shown below. It was noted that at the time of the collapse of part of the bridge, two visitors were actually trapped on the unconnected part, and eventually had to be lifted onto safe grounds using helicopters.

We marvelled at the magnificent roar the waves are making as they incessantly pounded on the rocks, but most of the time we were just trying to fight the chilly wind and drizzling rain. You can see we were quite wet. John lamented that his precious lens got raindrops even though he was protectively hiding it in the folds of his jacket.

Group shot @ London Bridge

That's where the bridge collapsed!

Next, we made our way to the Loch Ard Gorge. We ploughed our way through the thick thorny bushes and caught sight of the magnificent Blowhole and Muttonbird Island. Then we made our way to the ship wreck location which claimed the lives of 2 sailors.

Blowhole

A view from the Muttonbird Island lookout

John happily traded his DSLR for his videocam

Obsession with shadows 1

Obsession with shadows 2

Andrew setting up the camera for a group shot

Finally, we proceeded to the famous Twelve Apostles. We reached the place about 4pm, and the sun was about to set. The weather was fine finally, and it was not that cold.

Group shot at the gateway to the Twelve Apostles

Sunset @ Twelve Apostles

Andrew was about to fall down the unstable cliff

There was no time to waste as the sun was setting. It would be dangerous to drive in the dark along the winding roads that meander along the coastal edge and mountain foot.

Andrew took charge of the driving duties while Paul took a rest. Zooming past rows and rows of trees, Andrew clocked an average of 80km/h to 100km/h. The fast darkening sky cast a sleeping spell on all of us (thankfully not on Andrew the driver) so most of us missed the exhilarating high-speed sharp turns that Andrew executed. Though the Chief Navigator fell asleep, we did not get lost thanks to the skill of Andrew (and divine mercy). By the time all of us awoke from our slumber, night has fallen. We reached Apollo Bay at 7pm safely (thankfully), and settled in a Fish n Chip dinner.

We were quite hungry because we did not have lunch. It was in this light that we ordered two seafood platter plates to share. Initially we thought it wasn't enough but turned out that the serving portions were huge. Strangely the squid tasted differently. So did the crabsticks. Daniel did not manage to finish the fish as he was too full, but instead garbled up all the greens laced with olive oil. The rest lapped up everything.

Paul couldn't resist taking a bite at the seafood platter

Seafood platter for two

After the meal, we visited a nearby grocery store and grabbed a six-pack, fruits, water and chips. It was another long way back, and John drove again. It was a pity we did not drive through this last stretch in the daytime, as we would have been able to appreciate the magnificent sea view and the two little interesting towns (Lorne and Torquay) that were supposedly touristy. Still, it was a very memorable drive for all of us with the ocean crashing on the right and looming cliffs on the left and sharp winds every 50m down the road.

Reaching Geelong, we circled the town looking for a pump as we were rather low on fuel having travelled a credible 400km the whole day. In the end, we decided to pump next morning when more petrol kiosks were open.

We were all exhausted by the time we returned to the motel. After showering, we bottomed up with the newly bought beer, and soon fell into slumber. The night was cold and the electric blankets proved to be John and Andrew's best friend (Paul and Daniel could only rely on each other for warmth).