Days 8 & 9: Pixie & The Great Ocean Road

We sadly abandoned El to the beginning of her working week and the now 2 Musketeers went in search of breakfast. We dined at a delightful cafe and I had green eggs and ham - I didn't even know that this existed. I was very happy about the ham and not so sure about the green eggs. Leah and I discussed how people with lots of money learn how to spend it and whether if we had lots of money we'd care to become "It" Girls. I'm sure you can imagine the outcome of that chat!

Anyway, before too long we set-out without a map to find the beginning of The Great Ocean Road and navigate our way to my Godmothers. As is Leah's way she has been known for some ten years as Pixie Godmother as we once encountered her on a train back from Brighton. If she did once resemble a Pixie she doesn't any longer, but either way she is now living at least half the year in Aireys Inlet about 2 hours from Melbourne. A very convenient stop on our tour and the place where Round The Twist was filmed. The lighthouse from the program is the famous Split Point Lighthouse just outside Pixie's door!

So we arrive at about lunchtime after a quick coffee in Torquay and not too many wrong turns. We are taken on a pleasant walk to the bay and taught about the local wildlife and history of the area. I fail to get any personal information out of Pixie and we settle for small-talk.

We ate lunch together and as Leah and I are planning our escape to avoid the next walk Pix invites herself along for a swim. She then directs us to a secluded bay which requires a half mile cliff scramble and attempts to teach me to body-board. This is hilarious as she is not the sort of woman that I ever expected to be whooping and splashing around the in sea! We then have dinner and get put to bed very early after detailed discussions of Pixie's imminent trip to Tasmania and a short program on unemployment in Australia.

We hot-footed it out of Aireys early the next morning to prevent any delay to Pixie's Tasmainian tour and continue our drive along the fantastic road. It is difficult to describe what an amazing experience this was; you are driving on the clifftops for most of the journey as if you could slide straight into the brilliant ocean. There is hardly a car in sight and the weather was fantastic.

We stop to pick up a couple of French boys from the side of the road and drive them to The Twelve Apostles. They are quite quiet but Leah informs me that one of them smells pretty strongly. The road has turned inland at this point and we are now driving across acres and acres of beautiful farm land. We deposit our European load and take in the eleven ancient pillars of stone before I decide that it's time for a swim and Leah directs us to Lock Ard Gorge.

This is a deep cut, secluded beach with huge caves at either end. I am too scared to go in the water mostly because of the shark scene in The Beach [it looks just like that beach] but also because it's quite rough, so Leah buries my leg in an attempt to get me to understand what it would mean to be disabled and after I'm sufficiently sun burnt we leave to find some lunch. Incidently, this place is named after two passengers who washed ashore after their steamer was wrecked and who survived in the cave for a night before being rescued.

We lunch in Port Campbell where I park the wrong way in the street and upset some locals, we have a damn good sandwich and then some even better ice cream and I go in to the most perfect surf shop in the world and wish I had more money and that I spent my life surfing and being cool. It is now time to go home and despite the fact that we did plan to camp one night somewhere on route we ditch this idea in favour of returning to El and having more time to spend in Melbourne before I have to leave.

I suggest that if you get the chance to ask Leah what we discussed on our journey home that you do as I feel I cannot publish it here but that it should be shared.

Day 7: Hot Springs

Morning broke and we packed up camp. I sadly returned "the crab" to the reception even though it had been offered as a gift the previous evening. We waved goodbye to the campsite and set-off off the the local market.

I am not a fan of markets. It's not that I don't see the point of them, or that I cannot acknowledge that you can pick up some good bargains/fresh produce/original gifts, it's just that whenever Leah and I go anywhere we have to attend a market. So this occasion was no different except perhaps that this was a market of particular poor quality with a band. I say band, but maybe I should explain that it was one elderly gentleman who was almost certainly deaf and his crazed looking wife armed with keyboard. Her contribution to the music was to choose the demo backing and hit the start button whilst he sang tunelessly about when he had been younger. I sincerely hope that when he had been younger that he had been of better calibre.

From here we journeyed on to a Wildlife Reserve with real life Kangaroo's that you could hand feed and a lama and a pen full of Hoppies [Wallabies] and horses and a whole bunch of terrifying Emus. The place is built in the shape of a worm and seems to be mostly dedicated to the special species of endangered earth worm found in the region. Unfortunately we did not get the pleasure of seeing one of the 3 foot beauties as they are no longer allowed to keep them in captivity due their extremely rare status. Shame.

We then beach hopped a bit and I made Leah go for a very cold swim which wasn't nearly as cold as the swims she has made me do in Brighton. We read some of The Bone Collector as this was the story of the moment and I ate some chicken, parma local speciality which was good. We went to the look-out point and then on the secret location.

I had been told at the beginning of the week that some surprise had been planned that was to take place at the weekend. I was then banned from reading Leah's blog as it detailed the surprise and so I was pretty excited and not disappointed! I was taken to some Hot Springs and it was heaven. A very beautiful resort laid out with pools of differing heat, a plunge pool and steam room all outdoors just as the sun was going down. Perfect.

After an hour of soaking up the blissful waters of the springs we headed back into Melbourne and got cozy in Rupert for the night.

A really fantastic weekend - thanks girls!