It took about an hour and a half of driving through the suburbs, farmland and through Geelong to get to our surfing site in Ocean Grove. We changed into our wetsuits and met Robert and the other surf guides on the beach, carrying our boards two by two. They gave us a brief lesson and away we went! W got up on his board immediately, as did Craig. I was able to get up on my feet several times, but could never stay up longer than a few moments. The day turned beautiful but it was windy with good sized waves. The students were all good sports and made an effort, with various results.
We drove along the beach to Torquay, the home of Billabong and Rip Curl. The area is known for its surfing, and the surf lifestyle has permeated Australia. Board shorts and bright colors are the standard. Craig, W and I had lunch at a small Japanese shop; W tried hand roll sushi for the first time (very fresh salmon!) We browsed through shops like Oakley, Reef and Rip Curl before heading to to the outlets. People dug through bins for $10 shirts; Wally found some great board shorts for a good price. The exchange rate right now is about 76 cents to the Australian dollar.
Then we drove along the coast to the start of the Great Ocean Road, which was built after WWI by soldiers returning home. It is the road that connects all of the seaside towns in southern Australia, with small towns and homes with glass porches along the stretches of vast field and dwarfed trees. Andy provided me with lots of information as we drove as I peppered him with questions. The amazing part of the Great Ocean Road were the miles of beaches, mostly uninhabited. Andy remarked that there is such a lot of beach that they are rarely crowded, even at peak holiday time. And in every town we passed, there were no vacancies at the backpackers' and hotels.
Our next stop was the pier in Lorne, a busy seaside town that set right up against the hillside. It was evacuated the week before due to the threat of fire, but was packed today. The pier was a several story high metal structure that looked back to the east onto the bay filled with tourists. High schoolers in wetsuits jumped off of the pier and climbed the ladder back up, one even doing so holding an Elon student's GoPro camera. The waves were huge heading toward the beach, providing some challenge to the swimmers practicing for the Pier to Pub swim coming up soon. It is less than a mile, and I would LOVE to do it!
Back in the van and off of the Great Ocean Road and into the Ottways Forest. We spent a lot of time in the van going through hairpin turns and deep forest, due to a fire last week that swept through Wye River, destroying over 100 towns. We drove past many Australian fire trucks, that are still working on active fires in the area caused by lightning strikes and accelerated by dry conditions. The forest was dense with ferns that looked prehistoric, the size of aa small car. Random sites: a pig in someone's yard, a seven foot high T-Rex statue leading Santa's sleigh, a llama in with sheep, lots of cows and sheep.
Final destination - Seaside Backpackers in Apollo Bay, another small seaside town with one strip of shops. We stopped at a 'bottle shop,' a gourmet bar and tasting room, where a student dropped a bottle of liquor. A few bottles of Little Creatures for us, and we headed for the hostel. It is a ramshackle assortment of small houses and outbuildings that we shared with some Austrians, Germans and more. Most of the small rooms housed 2-6 people in bunk beds with common areas of pool tables, puzzles and LPs featuring ABBA and Neil Diamond. We met up with Charlie, Andy's wife and their kids, Mads and Jasper, and got cooking while the students played backyard cricket overlooking the ocean. We ate burgers, salad and tried marinated kangaroo. Afterwards the wind was too strong and temperatures too cold to stay outside, so we migrated into the common area to play pool and card games. (New game - Tourette's). Lots of laughter and lots of beverages for the kids....we went to bed after talking to C around 10:45pm.
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