Shelly Beach

Day 28
Today I went on a day trip of the Great Ocean Road, (starts at Torquay end in Allansford and is a 151 mile road along Australia’s coast that was built by soldiers returning from World War I to connect towns to make living easier as well as for tourism). We drove 112 miles of it on this tour doing it reverse to avoid the heavy crowds, so we drove to the furthest location first and worked our way back. If I had more time in Australia I would have loved to rent a car and drive the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne to Adelaide and be able to stop and see more. The tour started at 7am and we drove about an hour before making a stop to have some tea, coffee and biscuits and have a bathroom break before stopping at our first attraction of the day, the 12 Apostles (because they stand tall and proud along the coastline, the original name was The Sow and Piglets. There were 9 in the cluster however due to erosion there are 8 now.) I started talking to 2 of the girls while drinking tea (one from England, Hannah, and the other was from Rhode Island, Bella), and we decided instead of walking and seeing the 12 Apostles we decided to see it in a 4 person helicopter from the sky. It was my first time in a helicopter (it was really cool) and it was incredible to see from above. Our next stop was London Bridge and Loch Ard Gorge (named after the shipwreck clipper Loch Ard, many ships met their end around this part of the Great Ocean Road) which is part of Port Campbell National Park and OMG it was gorgeous, the beach and big cliffs were absolutely breathtaking. We spent some time here walking around and then went down to the beach to take photos and enjoy the views. Our next two stops were rainforest walks, one was called Melba Gully State Park and the other was Maits Rest (where we ate sandwiches for lunch) they were both beautiful. Maits Rest had huge trees that were really old and at the top of the walk there were trees that had fallen and you were able to see how big the tree stumps were. We stopped in a small town for ice cream and to look around the shops and then continued our drive to another location where we saw colorful king parrots and a couple of koalas hanging out in trees. The Great Ocean Road is lined with eucalyptus trees (Australia has hundreds of species) which is where koalas are likely to be, so it is a great location to spot them in the wild (they sleep about 20 hours a day because all they eat is eucalyptus leaves which has essentially zero nutrients so they have no energy). Koalas are born at only 3 months old (without fur, eyes or ears being fully developed yet) and find their way to the mother’s pouch where it stays for the first few months of its life until fully developed. Even though koalas live off the eucalyptus leaves, the baby koala needs to eat its mom poop to get the appropriate gut bacteria necessary to digest the leaves. Another popular animal I was told would be common on the Great Ocean Road was kangaroos but I didn’t see any. Our last stop was The Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch which is where the toll booth once stood that was placed to pay off the expense of the road but once it was paid off they wanted to get rid of it (the community wanted to keep the booth as a memory of the roads history and won against the government to keep it until shortly after when it was damaged by a garbage truck so they created the arch which has been replaced 2 times because of bush fires). Once we got back to Melbourne Hannah, Bella and I went to Hannah’s hotel to hang out and then went to Chinatown to grab dinner which was actually really yummy. We walked around the streets, there was a little food festival going on that we checked out and then we all went our separate ways back to our accommodations.

Day 29
It’s Super Bowl Monday!!! Let me tell you, it was weird watching the super bowl at 10am in the morning on a Monday. I found a sports bar in Melbourne that was playing the game and I am pretty sure I was the only American there. In honor of the game the bar was making Philly cheese steaks, which were actually really good. I ate and had some beers while watching the game, we didn’t get to see any of the commercials though. After the game was over I walked over towards the botanical gardens and then went to the Eureka Skydeck which overlooks the city. I walked around the whole top and got every angle of the city then went into a glass box that is sticking out from the building so when you look down the city is underneath you. It was actually kind of creepy but so cool. I walked back to the hostel and had dinner and then went to bed I was so tired.

Day 30
I finished packing up my bags and went to reception to check out. I grabbed my last cup of famous Melbourne coffee and walked around before going back to the hostel to relax and collect my bags to walk to the bus station where I took the bus to the airport. Perth is 3 hours behind Melbourne so my flight left at 3:10pm and landed at 4:15pm. Once I landed, I jumped on the bus to my hostel (Spinner’s Backpacker) and got settled in to my room. The hostel had a party bus come to bring people to one of the local 80s bar which I joined, through the hostel you got 2 free drinks and a free hotdog at the bar. I met a couple of girls on the bus (some worked at the hostel others were long time travelers at the hostel) that I hung out with for the night. It was a fun time and around 12ish a bunch of us decided to walk back to the hostel, which was about a 20 minute walk. The hostel had an open floor plan on the main floor with a reception desk, a pool table, a kitchen and a couch with a TV for Netflix. Some people stayed up to watch a movie and I decided to go to bed because I was exhausted with the time difference and the day of traveling.Read more