{"id":2204,"date":"2012-12-07T21:37:17","date_gmt":"2012-12-07T13:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/?page_id=2204"},"modified":"2017-08-17T21:48:26","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T13:48:26","slug":"melbourne-pg-4","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/?page_id=2204","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne Pg 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday 20th<\/sup> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Slept well.\u00a0 It\u2019s so lovely to report that every day!\u00a0 And woke before the 6am alarm \u2013 that\u2019s 3am in Perth and our usual going-to-bed time!\u00a0 David made us a cuppa each and I\u2019d had about 2 sips when I suddenly remembered what the date was.\u00a0 David\u2019s birthday!!!\u00a0 Oh dear.\u00a0 I\u2019d remembered the night before and put my carefully hidden stash of birthday cards for him on my bedside table, hidden under a brown paper bag.\u00a0 Fat lot of use that was when I didn\u2019t remember!\u00a0 But he never cares, and was very happy once I wished him a happy birthday and gave the cards all to him.\u00a0 He did very nicely too.<\/p>\n

We got dressed, gathered our things together and had a hasty breakfast of\u2026 (I bet you can guess!) and a cuppa and then went downstairs to wait for our 7:20 bus.\u00a0 We were a good 10 minutes early, out there in the cold, stiff breeze, but fortunately the bus was early too and we clambered aboard.\u00a0 There was only 1 other couple already on board and they were half way along the 25 seater so we grabbed the front seats, directly behind the driver and with a good view out of the front window, woo hooooo!!!!\u00a0 I\u2019d hoped to get a seat I could take photos from so this was a dream come true.<\/p>\n

Our very lovely driver\u2019s name was Campbell and he was actually a Perth boy, but had lived in Melbourne for 3 years.\u00a0 We drove around the city a bit, attempting to pick up other passengers but at the first stop the people were not ready \u2013 after Campbell had wandered around for quite some time trying to find them so we drove to the next place and picked up quite a few people from there.\u00a0 Then around to meet another bus that had been picking up passengers for us and they all piled aboard.\u00a0 Then back for the people who had not been ready.\u00a0 Campbell went into the hotel and the 3 people came out of a different door and spent much wasted time trying to get into the bus, but the door was shut and could not be opened by a passenger so they had to wait until he eventually arrived back.\u00a0 And when they were finally able to get on board they did not look very amused that they would have to sit separately.\u00a0 Well, I didn\u2019t have any sympathy.\u00a0 If they\u2019d been ready in a timely manner \u2013 ie 5 or 10 minutes earlier than asked \u2013 they could have chosen from any of 21 seats.<\/p>\n

By the time we left the city we\u2019d been on board the bus for about an hour, and the lovely young Asian couple even longer!\u00a0 I was starting to wonder how long it would be until a toilet stop because I knew that we had a long drive ahead of us.<\/p>\n

Campbell asked if anyone wanted to come up to the front and be co-pilot and one of the German ladies took him up on the offer.\u00a0 She was really gorgeous and they chatted very happily about many topics as we drove along.\u00a0 Her English was outstanding and covered many areas of the language, which always amazes me.<\/p>\n

What do I say about this day?\u00a0 We drove far but Campbell was wonderful and we stopped regularly for just the right amount of time so that we didn\u2019t feel rushed or herded.\u00a0 Probably my best bet is to just show you some photos and only give minimum commentary until needed \u2013 until we get to David\u2019s birthday present from me.<\/p>\n

We travelled along a motorway and skirted Geelong and our first stop was the famous-for-surfing Bells Beach.\u00a0 But the waves were small and there was only one surfer out there.\u00a0 The toilets and the morning tea or coffee served from thermos flasks and the biscuits were truly the main attractions.\u00a0 And soon enough we were on our way again, admiring the green of the country.\u00a0 Anyway, here are some of the things that we saw along the way\u2026<\/p>\n

This was very aptly pointed out to us as a \u2018house on a pole\u2019.\u00a0 Apparently owned by a German couple and you can rent it out for a fairly princely sum per night.<\/p>\n

\"House

House on a Pole<\/p><\/div>\n

I liked this quaint little bridge and managed to get a hasty shot as we approached it.<\/p>\n

\"Country

Country Bridge – Please comment if you know the town!<\/p><\/div>\n

This is the official gateway to the Great Ocean Road but was far too full of tourists for me to be very interested in taking a serious photo.<\/p>\n

\"Great

Great Ocean Road<\/p><\/div>\n

We covered all of the coast road shown in the map below, plus some more to the west during the day.<\/p>\n

\"Great

Great Ocean Road map<\/p><\/div>\n

Campbell\u2019s cute little mascot on the dash of the bus.<\/p>\n

\"Koala

Koala Mascot<\/p><\/div>\n

We stopped at Kennett River where these wild birds came down to hand feed from several small bus loads of tourists.\u00a0 David enjoyed feeding them, while I enjoyed taking photos.<\/p>\n

\"David

David with King Parrots at Kennett River<\/p><\/div>\n

And at the same place we found wild koalas in the trees.\u00a0 We\u2019d never seen wild koalas before, only in parks in enclosures so this was quite exciting for us.<\/p>\n

\"Koala

Koala at Kennett River<\/p><\/div>\n

Just David at one of the photo stops along the Great Ocean Road.<\/p>\n

\"David

David and Scenery along the Great Ocean Road<\/p><\/div>\n

Soon after this we stopped at Apollo Bay where tables had been booked for our lunch at the \u2018Iluka Restaurant\u2019.\u00a0 We\u2019d already chosen what meals we wanted from the menu shown to us on the bus and Campbell had phoned the choices through.\u00a0 The meals were very pleasant indeed \u2013 David had a selection of vegetarian salads and I had grilled fish with chips and a side-salad.\u00a0 We were most surprised that the meal did not include tea or coffee though so David went and bought us one each in takeaway cups.\u00a0 Fortunately I took the lid off mine because they\u2019d forgotten the milk, so he got that rectified for me.<\/p>\n

Just along from the restaurant was a shop named \u2018The Icecream Tub\u2019 and Campbell had told us that they had won many, many awards for their ice creams and had a mind-blowing array of flavours.\u00a0 These included vegemite, and red bull.\u00a0 Yes, vegemite ice cream!!!\u00a0 I can\u2019t begin to imagine!\u00a0 We were happy with our tea and coffee.<\/p>\n

From here we headed inland for a while and soon made a stop where we went for a short walk through forest land.\u00a0 I loved the moss on this broken tree.<\/p>\n

\"Beautiful

Beautiful Moss<\/p><\/div>\n

And here, Campbell took a photo for us inside the base of a very large tree.<\/p>\n

\"David

David & May in a Tree<\/p><\/div>\n

And then we reached what was to be the highlight of the tour for David, and was also his birthday present from me.\u00a0 A helicopter flight over the Twelve Apostles\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Twelve

Twelve Apostles Helicopter Tour<\/p><\/div>\n

We had to be weighed and David went first.\u00a0 I then said to the guy \u201cPlease tell me I weigh less than David!\u201d and he looked from one to the other of us and then said \u201cYou weigh less than David\u201d in a flat voice. The 3 of us broke out laughing because we all knew that wasn\u2019t true.\u00a0 It was the weight of the camera around my neck, of course \ud83d\ude09 \u00a0I then had to give my handbag in, and then join a queue to have our safety talk and be given a small yellow pouch each to tie around our waists.\u00a0 These held life jackets in case we should have to ditch into the water.\u00a0 And actually survived the landing and were able to get out of the wreckage lol<\/p>\n

It was a bit of a wait for \u2018our\u2019 helicopter to land, even though there were 4 of them making trips.\u00a0 Obviously this was a very popular thing to do.\u00a0 One couple from our bus had never flown in a helicopter before and were quite nervous but we reassured them.\u00a0 And here it comes\u2026 the one we were to fly in.<\/p>\n

\"Twelve

Twelve Apostles Helicopter Tour<\/p><\/div>\n

David looking very much like he was about to pilot us, but we were actually sitting in the back seat with our new-found friends and there were 3 girls in the front next to the pilot.\u00a0 I was quite surprised at how the pilot was squeezed into one little corner!<\/p>\n

\"David

David on Twelve Apostles Helicopter Tour<\/p><\/div>\n

And here was the purpose of our flight \u2013 the Twelve Apostles.\u00a0 Though there are only 7 left.\u00a0 I asked the pilot what speed we were doing and he replied 180 kph.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 It didn\u2019t feel much faster than about 60-80 kph!<\/p>\n

\"Twelve

Twelve Apostles Helicopter Tour<\/p><\/div>\n

David taking a photo while we were in the air.<\/p>\n

\"Twelve

Twelve Apostles Helicopter Tour<\/p><\/div>\n

Another aerial shot.\u00a0 A bit misty through the windscreen, but such is life, and you can still see the pretty layers in the cliffs.<\/p>\n

\"Twelve

Twelve Apostles Helicopter Tour<\/p><\/div>\n

And here is us as we came away from the helicopter after our flight.\u00a0 The flight was just 8 minutes long, but did seem longer, and the money (it was expensive!!!) will be forgotten long before the memory of the flight.<\/p>\n

\"David

David & May after the Helicopter Tour<\/p><\/div>\n

Now we set off on foot to go to the look out, and I can\u2019t leave this man *anywhere* without him finding a woman \u2013 and usually a pretty one.\u00a0 I turned my back on him for 2 seconds and this is what happened!\u00a0 She had asked him to take a photo of her so I grabbed the opportunity to shoot the whole scene anyway.<\/p>\n

\"David,

David, Collared<\/p><\/div>\n

My own favourite shot of the Twelve Apostles.<\/p>\n

\"Twelve

Twelve Apostles<\/p><\/div>\n

After this we stopped off at \u2018London Bridge\u2019 and also Loch Ard Gorge but, if I\u2019m honest, it started to feel like more of the same, and we were happy enough when it was time to head away from the coast and go inland once more.\u00a0 We took a different route back towards Melbourne and this included a stop off at Colac to grab some dinner.<\/p>\n

We chose a noodle place and I ended up with a fair sized bowl of \u2018soup\u2019 which was scalding hot and ended up having to take it onto the bus to finish eating.\u00a0 I managed to eat enough to get it down to a level where it wouldn\u2019t spill as we travelled before boarding the bus and could then eat at my leisure as we travelled along.\u00a0 And I finished just in time to be able to grab my camera as David told me to \u2018look at that sunset\u2019!<\/p>\n

To take this shot I had to sit sideways in my seat and point the camera over the back of my headrest as we bounced along on a bumpy road.\u00a0 I sooo wanted to have the bus stop so that I could take a proper photo without the blur of the movement and the window!\u00a0 In actual fact, I wanted to still be at the Twelve Apostles and take a picture of them with this amazing sunset behind them, but that was not to be \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

\"20th

20th November Sunset<\/p><\/div>\n

And so we pretty much came to the end of what had been a long but adventurous birthday for David.\u00a0 We were dropped back at the hotel at 9:45pm and went to the bar for a nightcap.\u00a0 I chose a cocktail named a \u2018cherry bomb\u2019, which turned out to be very nice indeed, and David had a beer, and then we absolutely crashed, exhausted, into bed.\u00a0 Dammit!!!!\u00a0 And you\u2019ll see why in tomorrow\u2019s story.<\/p>\n

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Tuesday 20th Slept well.\u00a0 It\u2019s so lovely to report that every day!\u00a0 And woke before the 6am alarm \u2013 that\u2019s 3am in Perth and our usual going-to-bed time!\u00a0 David made us a cuppa each and I\u2019d had about 2 sips … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2126,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2204","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2204"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3925,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2204\/revisions\/3925"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}