Still On Break...

Well, I’ll try to move through the rest of the break a little more quickly rather than take two pages just to do one day (although I think we can all agree that that was quite a monumental day…). The rest of the tour was pretty normal, the second day we went around to all the famous sites along the Great Ocean Road, like the 12 Apostles, London Bridge, the Grotto, and the Bay of Martyrs. Although, well, one funny thing did happen that day. We were on this random beach that didn’t really have any famous things on it, but I was trying to take a picture of the foam rolling in, all lacey and white. So I was quite close to the edge of the shore and this kind of rogue wave rolled in and so I started backing up really quickly to avoid getting my feet wet, but the sand was deep and sucked at my feet and I got bagged down so, Wabam!, over I went, falling right on my butt in about 3 inches of surf. I struggled to my feet pretty quickly, but the back of my jeans had already gotten soaked. So we rode to the next beach, the 12 apostles, and I had to sit in our van with my wet pants. But then I saw a chance while some others were going on this expensive helicopter ride and I asked our driver if I could get into the trailer in the back for my pack. And so, as I was rummaging around back there, he saw the forlorn state of my trousers and was like, “Geez, what happened to you?” And so I explained to him that I had fallen, but I had an extra pair of pants to change into and could he please leave the trailer open so I could go run and change? And he was like, “Well, if you wanted, you could just change here.” And I looked around, and he was right, there was no one around. So he just went around the other side of the trailer door and I changed pants in the lovely fresh sea air. Word.

So anyway, the third day started out as a bit of a disappointment because it was cold and rainy and so we drove around like, “Hey, that’s the beach that’s rated number 1 in Australia, anybody want to get out for a picture?” “Nope.” And we also had to miss seeing a petrified forest because of the rain, which sorely disappointed by. But it was also because we missed that that we got to see a composite volcanic cone, sadly extinct, but still really cool. The day finally cleared up, so we got to spend some more time looking at tide pools along the shore and it was nice and clear for our big barbecue dinner that night. The next day was comparatively kind of dull, but still pretty fun. We saw this giant lobster statue that Thryn was quite thrilled by and also a pink lake (beta carotene, don’t ya know?) and we stopped for lunch at the Coorong Wilderness place and had kangaroo balls (don’t worry, just meatballs made from kangaroo meat) and we had a little talk from a man who was descended from Aborigines and he talked to us about the plants in the area and what the Aborigines had used them for. But I think even though the day was enjoyable, I was pretty relieved when we finally pulled into Adelaide.

As for the next day, well, the less said, the better. We pretty much just walked around Adelaide to different travel agencies and spent massive amounts of time in the library on the internet trying to figure out what we would do for the rest of break. We knew that we wanted to go to Kangaroo Island and to either the Grampians or the Flinders Ranges, but transportation issues were just not working out, and we were either going to run out of money or spend the rest of our time in Adelaide doing pretty much nothing. So we were quite dejected most of that day, and then I think by the end of the day, even when we got back to our hostel, we were pretty sure that nothing good was ever going to happen again. But then that night Thryn started making a few more phone calls that night and things finally started falling into place. The day, as a whole however, was not a pleasant one. We like to call that one Black Wednesday.

The next day, however, made up for that by being rather fantastic. We met up with Susannah’s friend from camp, a girl named Eve. She was really a cool person, fun and outgoing and outrageous and warm and helpful and just generally awesome. We spent the day around the Adelaide Hills area, we got my first Aussie pie in Handorf, a little German town, we took lots of free samples at the Melba chocolate factory, we poked around this tiny toy store with the kitschiest ever souvenirs (not surprising, since it’s mascot was a giant steel rocking horse). Not only did they have this amazing piece of monumental art, they also had quite an aviary. So, naturally, we ended up dancing with a rowdy crew of sulphur-crested cockatoos, which are quite rhythmical, apparently. Then Eve took us back to her house to make stir-fry and noodles for dinner and we got to meet her family, and all was quite well with our souls, though they had been replete with abrasions from the turmoil of the previous day. More next time, don’t worry kids, we’ve crossed the halfway point!!!