Let me start by saying if anyone ever has a chance to drive The Great Ocean Road please, please do it.  When Klompy and I left Adelaide last Monday it turned out to be one of the most scenic drives of my life.  Comparable to the drive I did last year down the California coast but with much bluer tropical waters, cute little beach towns and radical cliffs and rock formations.  We didn’t hit The Great Ocean Road till day two but the first day of driving out of Adelaide did not disappoint.  We stopped at two pretty little towns, the first being Robe with an incredible beach and the second being Mount Gambie.  Mount Gambie isn’t on the water but if you drive into the hills you will reach Blue Lake.  This lake is an old volcano crater that has the most amazing colour of blue I’ve ever seen in fresh water, definitely worth the detour.  From Mount Gambie we headed to Portland where we bunked down for the night.  Now I don’t know what it is about being in Australia but once again I found myself being a classy girl and drinking wine while we sat in the car for the night with our crossword puzzles.  At least this time we did have glasses so we didn’t have to swig straight out of the bottle.

 The next morning we woke early which wasn’t much of a challenge since we were sharing a single mattress in the back of Kompy’s mom’s car.  This is when The Great Ocean Road part started.  Our first town we saw was Port Fairy which we stopped at the tourist info centre and armed ourselves with books and maps so we could plan our day of driving.  Since I figure it is best for the safety of Australia that I don’t drive while I am here Klomp handled that part and I became the navigator.  With each little town or tourist attraction we stopped at I would start reading out the history of each location.  We saw the Bay of Islands, which is pretty self explanatory then it was to the London Bridge which is now called the London Arch since the water has eroded away the part of the rock the extended from the land that was the bridge.  Then it was to Loch Ard Gorge where the Loch Ard boat was shipwrecked in the 1800’s and the only two survivors made their way to the beach there.  Next stop is the most popular along the drive which is the Twelve Apostles.  They are these limestone stacks off the shore, even though you can’t see twelve at a time and because of the erosion already there is no longer twelve it is still a sight to see.  We then headed on our way to a little town called Lorne for lunch and then after drove up the hills stopping at Timmy’s lookout which has an incredible view of the water and then further up to the Elkrine Falls.  After seeing the waterfall we headed on our way to Torquay where we were stopping for the night.  Torquay is a famous surf spot here with Bells Beach having one of the largest surf comps every year.  It is also where Ripcurl was started and is home to most of the surf brand offices.  It’s probably a good thing my funds are running low because I could have shopped till I dropped.

 Now it was Melbourne time, in a way I guess.  Now most Aussie’s will probably be truly disappointed when they find out that I didn’t actually go into the city of Melbourne but only to a suburb of it called St Kilda.  It is a great little area just outside of the city right on the water and filled with a bunch of funky shops, cafes, lounges and bars.  We met our friend Anna Moul (say the name fast and you’ll see why I giggle every time I say it) who we were staying with for the night.  We headed to this great vegetarian restaurant called Soulmama for dinner and I wish we had a place like this in Canada.  You pay fifteen dollars and you get to choose 4 dishes buffet style that comes with a side of rice; delicious, healthy and so filling.  Then we met up with a couple more of our friends from Big White, Tyrone and Daniel and the night of pub crawling began.  It was a very tipsy night that ended at McDonalds and once we realized that we were the drunkest people there after I fell straight on my back and Klompy laughing a whole bottle of water through her nose we made a quick escape, you know it’s been a fun night when you are the people everyone is looking at you in disgust at two in the morning.   Not feeling so hot in the morning and having no choice I had to hop in the car for a very long, hot eight hour drive back to Adelaide.  I don’t recommend doing this.   

 My last couple of days in Adelaide involved checking out more of the city and the area that Klompy lives in.  It’s a little part in the hills called Stirling that I fell in love with, very cute and quaint.  We met up with our friends Shonny and Tash in the city on Rundel Street for a very yummy Italian lunch and then our friend Lucas joined us for some drinks.  Later on Klomp had to work so Luke and Alicia picked me up and we went to Klompy’s work for some drinks on my last night.

 Four hours after getting home from my drinks I had to head to the airport for my flight to Perth.  Everyone kept on telling me that Perth would steal my heart and they were right.  There, I was staying with my friend’s Mark and Torrie.  Torrie is Canadian and Mark is from Northen Ireland and I met the two of them in Kelowna.  They were regulars of mine at Sturgeon Hall that I quickly became friends with.  Also their two pugs Mac and Kobe who are here with them are my adopted nephews and were also my regulars.   This is now my second time seeing Irish and Torrs overseas because when I went to Europe a few years ago they were back visiting Irish’s family so I stayed with them and Torrs and I headed to Dublin for a few nights together.  In addition to their pugs they have brought another dog into their clan since arriving here.  Now I’m not sure if I can call this animal a dog, at eight months he is already weighing sixty kilos so I started referring to him as the horse cross lion.  He is a Neapolitan Mastiff who is huge and slobbery but still cute, should also be mentioned that he will double in size. 

 The first couple of days they took me around Perth and showed me some of the local drinking spots, I’m starting to notice a theme on this trip.  We went for a Sunday session at The Royal in East Perth that is right on the river and the nest night we headed to Torries’ work called the Morley Ale House.  Also that night we had to put our bets on for Melbourne Cup that was happening the next day.  Irish and I headed to Torrs work to watch the race, pretty funny that the whole country practically stops for a race that lasts less than five minutes.  I was hoping for big winnings on my bets and even though I didn’t become rich I did win sixty dollars that payed for my drinks that day so not a total loss.  While were collecting our winnings the girl beside us found out she was a big winner, she placed a three dollar mystery bet that ending up cashing in nine grand.  You should have seen the look on her face as she was only expecting a grand, lucky girl.

 Since it was a nice day on Wednesday we headed down to Scarborough beach to spend the afternoon.  It’s amazing how much the coast line changes throughout this country but it is all still very beautiful.  Later that night we headed to my personal favourite area of Perth which is Fremantle to go on a night torch ghost tour of the prison.  For some reason I always find myself touring old prisons when I travel and if there isn’t a prison then it’s usually a haunted tour so this one was made for me.  Pretty creepy and even had Torrs and me screaming at one point.  Like I said before Fremantle was the part I liked the most but since we were only driving around it at night I was pretty happy to be able to go back there the next day and meet up with my friend Calabrese and his friends.  We ended up at the local brewery called Little Creatures and drank away the afternoon there.  If anyone ever ends up there you should definitely try the cider.

 For my last day in Perth Torrie and I ventured out on an all day wine boat tour through the Swan River.  Great way to see the city as they give you a full commentary as you head up the river.  We got to have a wine tasting on the boat and then hit up two wineries, Sandleford and Water’s Edge with a three course lunch at the latter.  After we stumbled off the boat we met up with Irish at the pub on the pier there called the Lucky Shag Bar, have to love the name.  Now I am back in Brisbane till I leave back to Canada on Saturday so it’s now time to do the theme parks and get together with friends for a final hurrah.

 SJ