Flights Taken : 16 Hotel Rooms Stayed in : 31
Number of Haircuts Chris has had since tour started : 2 (1 in Thailand, 1 in Singapore)
We left our beautiful hotel in Borneo and set of on the journey to Melbourne at midday. Initially we had to get a flight to Singapore and then wait around at the airport for 7 hours until our flight to Melbourne at 0045 the next morning. On arrival at Singapore (after passing through a very pleasant passport control desk where the lady offered us sweets) we went to the airport lounge and made use of our priority pass lounge passes. Ruth was so knackered at this point she had to go into the “nap room” and have a 3 hour sleep which was very welcome. Chris passed the time playing chess.com and having his hair cut in the lounge (he had needed it doing for a while as it was sticking up everywhere and he had taken to wearing a hat to disguise it!). We finally boarded the flight which lasted 7 hours. Both of us found this flight very difficult as we were utterly exhausted and the legroom was not great and it was really difficult to get comfortable so we did not sleep.
Anyway we eventually got to Melbourne where we picked up the hire car. However they did not have a spare sat nav to give us. This was quite devastating news as instead they handed us an A to Z of Melbourne which was the size of a telephone directory and said we’d be fine finding our city centre hotel from this. It was extremely large scale and we had no idea where abouts the airport even was let alone the hotel. Unfortunately we once had a very bad experience trying to navigate our way through Florida (well Ruth had to try and navigate whilst Chris wanted precise instructions as he drove – Ruth also has a problem with left and right – Sooz and Miz if you are reading this you will remember fondly from the back seat.) The whole experience including the arguments and recriminations were extremely severe and were not at all conducive to marital harmony. So there was no way we wanted a repeat of this, especially when we both had not slept the previous night. The woman on the desk realised our agitation and gave us very clear directions to an outlet park where we managed to buy a cheap Australian sat nav (it even had an option to take us avoiding the toll roads), hopefully we can flog it on ebay when we get home (if anyones interested please email us!!). By this stage we were beyond exhausted and starving, we managed to get to our hotel at 2pm so all in all it took us 24 hours door to door.
We had a walk round the city and the shops but we were so knackered we couldn’t take anything in or appreciate the fact that we were in Australia. We did however manage to find a Subway to get some food.
So the next morning we woke up in beautiful Australia and started to be grateful we are back here (the fourth time in 8 years but never to the South). It was a blue sky day and the temperature was a perfect 21 degrees. We headed of down the Great Ocean Road and suddenly realised that all the travelling to get here was worth it. The coast line was beautiful; the colour of the sea is an indescribable blue. We stopped of at Bells Beach where we admired the surfers.
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| Bells Beach on the Great Ocean Road |
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| Our trusty Hyundai complete with Sat Nav |
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| Near the start of the Great Ocean Road |
Driving a bit further of we stopped for a sandwich in the town of Lorne. This was a really nice town with a park in front of the beach. There were parrots flying around, loads of people in the sea and joy of joy (for Chris) a fishing pier!. We wandered around and took in the scenery. We even witnessed the life boat going out to rescue some stranded swimmers.
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| Way to the Beach |
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| Admiring the scenery in Lorne |
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| Witnessing a rescue - Lorne |
We then continued along the drive along the coast which definitely lives up to its billing as one of the most scenic drives in the world. We arrived in Apollo Bay in the afternoon and checked into our accommodation (Captains at the Bay). The room we are staying in is called “the cottage” and it is surprisingly luxurious. We initially thought it was a converted garage but it has its own private garden and free standing bath in the room. We are really pleased to be here in Australia and very much looking forward to the next part of the journey.
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| Our Cottage at Captains on the Bay in Apollo Bay |
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| Apollo Bay |
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