Melbourne to Adelaide – 1 Koala, 2 Kangaroos, 3 Muffins and 1,000 kms in 17 hrs
It was just an idea at first, but when my colleague told me it would take me a lot longer than I thought, it suddenly became a challenge, a bet even. My Adelaide based friend and I were attending a conference in Melbourne, and he had invited me to visit his small winery on the outskirts of Adelaide for a couple of days before my journey home. He was flying back from Melbourne the following evening, but I had other ideas. With only a day free, the pull of the Great Ocean Road was too much. So, a $10 bet was laid down. I bet him I would be able to pick him up from his flight as he arrived home. I was brought to my senses when the lady at the Avis desk thought I had the wrong drop-off date such was my madness.
I hadn’t seen 4am for a few years, but I was on the road within the hour, and made Torquay beach, a few miles on the road out of Melbourne, just as the sun was rising. Alone, with just the breakers to disturb the silence, I sat on the bonnet of the car looking out across the water contemplating the journey in front of me.
By the time I entered the large wooden archway entrance to the Great Ocean Road, a sea mist had descended. The higher the road climbed, the thicker the mist got. My heart sank, because if I wanted to see anything, my schedule would have to change. The road gods were looking after me however, because by the time I rolled into Angelsea, the sun had burnt off the last vestiges of fog before the shadows from the early morning sun slowly revealed scenes from a photographer’s dream. I’d hardly seen a car or truck, and the town of Apollo Bay greeted me with empty streets, but spectacular ocean views from Mariners Lookout as I waited for the bakery to open. I was first through the door and suddenly enveloped by the wonderful aroma of warm bread, muffins and other unknown delights being concocted in the back room. The owner surprised me by revealing her hometown was Motherwell in Scotland, only an hour from my own birthplace. I perhaps stayed too long, but our reminiscing of “back home” earned me some free blueberry muffins for the road. It’s nice to be nice.
I’d always planned that the only detour from my own long and winding road would take in the picturesque lighthouse at Cape Otway. It was a diversion of just eleven kilometres or so, but it was going to give me two of my most memorable experiences from the trip.
As I rounded one of the many corners through the forest leading to the sea, I was confronted by the sight of a Koala crossing the tarmac in front of me. Its slow gait had me mesmerised. He stopped, turned to look at my car and promptly sat upright in the middle of the road, daring me to move. In my mind I wondered what the rules were for “koala in the road” encounters, other than don’t touch. He very kindly posed for a few photos before slowly moving towards me as if looking for a lift, but clearly had second thoughts as he probably guessed there were no muffins left, so he veered off to the edge of the forest and starting to climb a tree. I watched him every step of the way, until he was safely out of sight. Then suddenly, a minivan full of Japanese tourists suddenly came round the corner, racing past me in a hurry to get somewhere. My smug expression took a while to disappear from my face as I contemplated my good fortune and their bad luck.
Ten minutes later I was on the long straight boardwalk heading towards the Lighthouse, sitting on a spectacular cliffside location with the surf pounding the rocks. I slowly climbed the seventy-eight steps to the top, only to be surprised by a cheery welcome from a white bearded, and it has to be said, a well-worn former lightkeeper called Pat. Overjoyed at having a visitor from Blighty, it wasn’t long before he was sharing not only his many stories, but also his bottle of port hidden behind a compass. His knowledge of lighthouses around the British coastline was astonishing, especially when he admitted he never been out of Australia. Moments like this take ordinary journeys and lift them to the extraordinary. We would have finished the bottle had I not been driving, and Pat had to be relatively coherent when talking to other visitors.
I was well through the day before I reached the famous Twelve Apostles, a spectacular collection of limestone rocks towering along the coastline in the Port Campbell National Park, alternatively called the shipwreck coast. Trading standards should be made aware of the description because only eight of them are still standing, but it would be churlish to register a complaint because it is still an amazing sight.
The Loch Ard Gorge was named after a three masted schooner built in Glasgow in 1873. It ran ashore on the 1st June 1878 with the loss of 52 lives, and only 2 survivors. I contemplated the thought that I had travelled all the way from that same city in such a short space of time, while it had taken them two months to reach this spot toward the end of their journey, but ultimately, never to arrive.
The Great Ocean Road ends at Warrnambool, only 240kms from its starting point, whereas my journey would take in another 600 kms, along the coastline and the wineries of Coonawarra, famed for its “terra rossa” or red soil, with names like Majella, Penley and Wynns where Cabernet reigns, before heading onto Adelaide.
The rest of the journey was uneventful apart from an encounter with a police patrol who pulled me over because tiredness had made me a exceed the speed limit, but only by a small margin. Being wine country, they also wanted to know why I had all the car windows open. Explaining the difference between temperatures back in my homeland and here in Southern Australia, the cops seemed more amused than concerned. Admiring my really nice, upgraded rental car, one of them wanted a quick drive to see what it was like. When he returned, he told me the tax disc on the car was out of date! Now that we were mates, he decided not to book me for speeding but gave me a ticket for tax evasion as I could reclaim it from the car rental company. That made us not just mates, now we were best mates and had a long discussion about the difference between Australian Football and Soccer, which I let him win, and then I was on my way.
1,026 kms and 16.5 hours after leaving Melbourne, I reached Adelaide. The last 100 kms were difficult in the fading light, but as I waited for my colleague’s flight to arrive from Melbourne with ten minutes to spare, I ruminated on the best ten dollars I’d ever won, although it took me eighteen months to get the fine repaid by Avis.
When you’ve been stopped by the police, have a koala all to yourself, get free muffins, have a glass of port in a lighthouse, you know you’ve had a full day. Think what I could have done with a few more days to spare. Whatever you do, take time to do the Great Ocean Road, it will reward you in ways you’ll never expect.
