sooyindotcom

15 September 2005

Yawn! Hate waking up so early in the morning. Especially when the weather is chilly! We went down to the lobby to board the coach transfer, and after the coach driver picked up a few other passengers at various hotels, we were taken to Swanston Street to board the actual coach taking us to the Great Ocean Road tour. There were only about 25 passengers joining the tour, so we had plenty of empty seats in the coach.

First stop was at Torquay for coffee and breakfast @ Tapas Café. We ordered one plate of bacon, poached eggs, tomato and toasted muffin to shareâ?¦itâ??s amazing how great a simple breakfast can taste! The weather was extremely windy, I was wearing a long sleeved top, coupled with a thick jacket and a padded vest, and I still felt cold!

After breakfast, we continued on past Uruquay, Bells Beach and had a bit of a kangaroo sighting excursion at Anglesea Golf Course. We experienced intermittent showers along the way, but we were lucky that the sun was shining brightly during most of our stops. Hubby made sure we sat at the left side of the bus, so we got views of the ocean throughout the whole journey. From my vantage point, we seemed to be travelling right at the edge of the cliffs…quite nerve-wrecking considering how fast the driver seemed to be going! The ocean was quite calm, with little froths of foam and tiny waves, though the parts neared to the cliffs had sharp jagged rocks along certain areas. The journey was very scenic as we also passed through forests (spotted a few koalas!) and picnic areas with little streams. Very picturesque!

Lunch was at Apollo Bay @ Georges Food Court. Hubby ordered roast chicken with fries, while I went for a chicken burger. As usual, we forgot that the food was Australian sizedâ?¦shouldâ??ve just shared one plate. My burger was so huge that I only managed to finish about half!

After lunch, we continued our journey to the 12 Apostles, and reached there about one hour after leaving Apollo Bay. It was already quite windy as we took a long walk to the viewing deck but when we reached the viewing deck which was right at the edge of the cliff, we were buffeted by extremely strong windsâ?¦itâ??s the kind that really makes it a struggle to take even one step! If I was holding an umbrella, I probably would’ve floated merrily away like Mary Poppins! It was hard to pose for photos as well, as the wind was blowing my hair into my face. The wind was cold till the point where my head started to hurt and my cheeks and ears were rapidly turning pink! While we tried taking some photos of the 12 Apostles, we couldn’t get really good shots as the direction of the sun was behind the rock stacks, making it appear really dark in the photos. It was such a pity, as we were looking forward to taking some really good photos at this stop.

From the 12 Apostles, we proceeded on to Loch Ard Gorge where the guide told us about the shipwreck story of the iron clipper, Loch Ard, which crashed into the cliffs in 1878, killing 52 people onboard. Only two people survived…a crewman named Tom Pearce, and a passenger, Eva Carmichael. Even now, with the sun shining so brightly, the waves below already look rather frightening…so it isn’t hard to imagine how a storm could quickly turn the sea into a monster!

From Loch Ard Gorge, we proceed to London Bridge and finally, a quick last photo-stop where we got a good view of the limestone cliffs before proceeding to Port Campbell to pick up a passenger that had stayed overnight there. At the last photo-stop, I managed to take a photo of a rainbow emerging, or ending (depending on how you see it!) in the sea…was so happy…=) The journey back took two and a half hours…luckily, we managed to sleep most of the way, so that helped to pass the time!

By the time we reached the hotel, it was too late (and too cold) to venture out for dinner, so we decided to try one of the restaurants in the hotel. We ended up queuing in front of Waterfront Seafood Restaurant, which was totally packed. While waiting, I played with a little baby boy whose parents were seated on the table right next to the queue. He was in his pram…and oh-so-adorableâ?¦he grabbed my finger, and proceeded to laugh and gurgle and wave his hand all around. I got a little kiss on my hand too…what a gentleman! Though at one point, my finger almost ended up in his mouth as a substitute dummy…

After a 20 minute wait, we finally got shown to our table. By then, we had already studied the menu thoroughly and knew what we wanted: a seafood sampler, mussels in white wine, garlic and parsley, seafood chowder and garlic king prawns with pilaf rice. Considering the amount of people in the restaurant, the food arrived rather fast! Hubby’s seafood sampler was enormous…it had sushi, sashimi, tiger prawns, soft shell crab, California rolls all on one huge plate. The mussels were really fresh, and the white wine garlic sauce was simply wonderful. It tasted extremely good with the mussels, even better on it’s own, and divine when it was soaked up in the French loaf slices provided.

By the time we finished the above two dishes, we were already more than half-full. I ate so much mussels that I’ll probably steer clear of them for a couple of months! The seafood chowder and king prawns came soon after the waiter cleared our table. My main course looked and smelled so good! The garlic was actually fried and sprinkled on top of the king prawns, which were drenched in a coconut based gravy. I couldn’t eat much of the pilaf rice, but I certainly finished the prawns…all ten of ‘em! It was cooked just right, with still abit of crunch in them and again, so very fresh!

And as usual, we were so full that we had to forgo dessert…=(

Exhausted from the day’s trip, and so full from the dinner, we spent what was left of the night lazing about in the room watching telly before turning in for a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow…Queen Victoria Market and Brunswick Street!

For more photos, go to Photoblogum!