The Oz Report: Melbourne trip

We are up in the Wild Dog Valley, far far from cellphone reception or internet, so I am writing this in my iPad notes as I just must do something electronic or the shakes could start. I slept pretty well last night after tossing and turning for a couple of hours worrying about the job situation. Every day there seems to be some new piece of information that seems to push me over the edge of emotion.

We arrived in Melbourne on Sunday night rather than Monday morning, as having checked the flights for Monday, and seeing they were overbooked, decided it would be better just to start our trip early. We booked a triple room at the Ibis Budget, as a cheap way to spend Sunday night, and that proved interesting, to say the least. The room was barely larger than two single beds, with the third bed being a bunk hovering over the lower two. There was a small sink in the corner, a tiny TV hung high in the second corner, the third corner was the door and the fourth corner was a tiny camper-van style toilet & shower. It needed a sign on the door saying "many go down to the underworld but few return to the sunlit lands." Add to that the fact that they didn't even bother to make the bed on my high up foam contraption, and the pillow was filthy... it was a very interesting experience.

Monday morning we exited the Ibis as quickly as we good, picked up the car and headed down the Great Ocean Road, first stop Torquay, which was incredibly beautiful. We stopped briefly many times on the way to Apollo Bay, although our hopes of fish and chips in Lorne were dashed by the fish and chip shop owners going on holiday. We had to settle for ice cream instead and got f&c on arrival in Apollo Bay.

Monday night we booked an Air B&B high in the Wild Dog Valley which is breathtakingly beautiful with crazily giant ferns, parrots everywhere and of course a goat farm. I don't think I could handle living anywhere with completely no phone reception however. It is very isolating to a child of technology like me.

Today we drive to Port Fairy which is our last night stop before going back to Melbourne. It is a less coastal route but we still have the 12 Apostles to look forward to.

This last bit of this post is written from Port Fairy. We had a very lazy start to the day, not leaving Apollo Bay until after 10, although I did get to make friends with some goats and see some deer and parrots.

There was less to see on the way to Port Fairy but we did stop by the 12 Apostles, "London Bridge" and see plenty of pretty extreme landscape - both mountainous and cliffs. Photos are to follow!

the AirB&B in Port Fairy is actually right on the beach which is pretty spectacular. Tomorrow we go inland back to Melbourne for our last night here.