Great Ocean Road Part I - Feb 22

Summary: Tidy Oz, nice pastie you got there, Great Ocean Road, big night in Port Campbell

I typically write these blog entries every night and then post them when I can get online. While I had seen 20-25 Tidy Town contestant signs, I really had not seen a single sign highlighting a victory in this Tidy Town contest. When I wrote that the ’95 tidiest town lurks around the corner, I had no idea. The first town we got to was Mt. Gambier, the 2005 Tidiest town. My fist thought was “why did I stay in Penola? The only town around here NOT to win!” Quickly we crossed from South Australia into Victoria and the next town was Heywood, which had a sign out front with maybe 15 Tidy Town awards in the past 20 years. It was like a sign with how many times Florida State had won the ACC in football since the 80’s (before Virginia Tech joined that conference and dominated from day 1). Either Australia gives out more than one Tidy Town per year or 18 of the last 20 awards have gone to one little corner of Australia along the southern South Australia – Victoria border.

A few days ago, I asked what was in a Pastie (a meat pie apparently with some veggies) –after replying that it had what any other pastie would have, he was astonished to learn that meat pies are not at all common in the US. He replied, “You can have your TV and movies – we’ve got pies.” Yes, technically we have meat pies, but let’s face it – finding British (er, Australian) food in the US is about as common as finding Somali food. I recalled that there were ads for “pasties” in Northern Michigan, but I had never eaten one. Apparently securing our independence from the UK a couple centuries ago has cost us this British culinary delight – I gotta admit I love ‘em. Alex is generally on board, but his vote is a little less clearly pro-pie than mine.

Today was a short driving day – just a few hundred km. We went through a series of small towns then hit the Great Ocean Road. There are a couple photos from Portland and let me clarify that Portland is a nice town with a great little string of restaurants and coffee shops (kind of like the Oregon Portland), but the best photo was this massive platform on the port. Then we went through Port Fairy and Warnambool (seaside playground and artillery).

Getting back to the Great Ocean Road - this is one of the most beautiful, scenic drives on the planet. Just a few km into the Great Ocean Road, I have passed the following sights (in order of the photos): the Martyrs, the Grotto, the Arches, London Bridge (a natural bridge that just collapsed one day about 2 decades ago, stranding someone and no doubt making them glad that they were not on it when it fell into the ocean)… if nothing else, you’ve got to love the names. All the scenery is dramatic. Alex was disappointed that the Grotto in no way resembled stories he’s heard about the Playboy Mansion (that's why his mouth is open as if to say "uh, where are the bunnies?"). The sign about driving on the left is fully 4.5 hours from Melbourne Airport (assuming no stops), so while I guess they have had problems (or they would not have put the sign up) it is worth noting that someone has to drive a long way to get to that sign. The next photo with the river, town (Pt Campbell) and ocean reminds me how much this looks like the California coast north of San Francisco.

After watching some Monsters Inc (see photo below), we found our way to the hottest restaurant in town tonight, on the beach about 4 blocks from our hotel. It was a good meal, great view, jam packed with a global all-star team of travelers, and it featured a downpour the whole time we ate. We had to make a bit of a dash for it, as the rain stuck around even after Alex finished my meal (while ignoring his). I’ll get a photo from there in the AM (done - see below).

Next: another leisurely drive up the majority of the Ocean Road to Geelong