After the zoo we went for lunch in a different district of Melbourne that had a high concentration of Lebanese, Turkish, and Afghani food/culture, plus a ton of hookah shops. We had Lebanese pizzas which were delicious. Then some free time until Sunday morning. A few of us took our hammocks to Uni Mel [Aussie for University of Melbourne] and strung them up, 5 of them on just a few trees. Well apparently no one here hammocks because we got so many hilarious reactions. One mom lifter her son over a hedge so he could get a look, some students asked what we were strung up in, and then what the word "hammock" meant. A police man asked if we were spending the night. No mr police man, just enjoying the fine winter day. Then we left to explore downtown a bit and get dinner in the Chinese district. Downtown was AWESOME. I love to bake so exploring the zillions of bakeries was such a treat, we stopped in cute book stores, and saw a giant shopping center built totally around an old brick "lead pipe and shot factory", with a tower that went up at least 8 stories, the mall was built Around it entirely with a glass dome going up to enclose the factory tower. It was nuts. Then we walked along and ran into some super sweet dubstep dancers who had accumulated quite a crowd. They were awesome and really exemplified how young and artistic this city is. We had dinner in the Chinese district, which is funny because most signs and things in Australia are also Chinese anyways. So the Chinese district just smelled spicy and had less English. The restaurant we picked totally serendipitously was pretty high tech, we ordered [a ton of honey chicken] on an iPad and the servers wore sunglasses like they were in the secret service. Next we headed home after a little more walking around town for an early rising next day!
Which was today! We left Nomads at 7 am and set out for the Great Ocean Road, a route that traces the very edge of the continent on cliffs and beaches, showing the most breathtaking sights Australia has to offer [I hope, l'll die of asphyxiation if anything takes my breath away more]. Mom, Dad and Kevin, I got serious flashbacks of the Amalfi coast. We had a wonderful drive, going an hour along, stopping at an overlook, repeating, each time the view of ocean and cliffs getting more spectacular. The first stop as a tusk my Bells Beach where we all ran out and then came springing back in as the rough waves gave chase. Still, over a hundred people were out surfing, now in the Winter months. What a gnarly population. Our next big stop was one of my main attractions to the whole trip, The 12 Apostles. So the coast of Australia is loaded with these things: great big stacks of limestone. What happens is the land juts out from everything beside it eroding, forming a sort of peninsula. Next, the current on either side cuts away a hole in the base, turning the peninsula into an archway. The arch grows until the remaining rock spanning the distance can't hold up, falling into the sea. That leave a big formation of limestone no longer connected to the land of the coast. The 12 Apostles is a really famous collection of these guys with awesome vantage points to take a good look. They're a absolutely wonderful, awe was actually inspired. The waves crashing on these enormous, lonely formations is so crazy to see. From there we stopped at many more overlooks. The fun part is that the place you park your car is pretty removed from the overlooks, so you take these trails through brush and grass to get to the platforms for taking pictures on the cliffs. It was so much fun exploring these paths and coming upon the sites. One of the best was this gorge where a ship wrecked. We were able to go down to the beach where the gorge walls went up so high on either side of us, and the waves crashed like they were angry against the walls, water funneled into these low "thunder caves," names for the sound the forceful waves made inside. The story is that only 2 out of 58 survived the wreck, a man and a woman, and he nursed her to health in an above ground cave there on the coast. It was a sight to behold. The rest of the lookouts were more views of the gorge, caves, and limestone formations standing in the waves of the coast. I don't remember seeing so many impressive sights all in one afternoon, I'll put pictures at the end!
Finally we arrived at dusk at a motel in Warrnambool and all went out for Thai food! Hooray! I believe we'll sleep early tonight because we have another 7 am departure tomorrow. We will drive to some tower place, explore that, then haul booty for 9 hours [!?] in the car to one more stop to sleep before driving the next day to the blue mountains for some hiking! Then Sydney for a while before heading into the outback! But I'll speak of ll this once it has happened, that's just the game plan. Alright [a million] pictures!
thanks everyone who has let me know they're reading, it's awesome to think you all are enjoying my adventure too! More to come!
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