The Bates Motel, by all measures, has actually been quite pleasant. Aside from being a little dusty, musty, and retro, the beds are comfy and all eleven channels of cable seem functional (even if they play much the same trash) The proprietor has been quite helpful as well, so as a whole this strange little experience has been great.
Of course, this morning we all woke up absurdly early – 5AM is just far too early to be debating where to go/what to do. Thankfully most of the itinerary was worked out last night, so we mostly had to decide how early was too early to get out of Geelong. After watching Logies review, and getting prepared, we left just after 7:30.
Today’s adventures were dominated by driving – we set off for the Ocean Road, which is an incredible coastal road that winds in and out of the rainforest, and then a little further into the country before hitting amazing coastal towns.
The first three hours of driving were consistent stop-start adventures, where we literally would stop every three hundred meters before starting again, until we rounded a new corner and found something else completely stunning.
Now, like the Brits, Australians drive on the left side of the road (something I’m beginning to think is much more logical than our North American silliness of driving on the right) but like Canadians, they use kilometers.
However, like Brits, they drive insanely fast around tight corners, where as we Canadians like to lurch to a stop any time there’s more than a slight turn.
Today, as we wound our tiny little Toyota around hills and up and down some very strange grades, there would be speed signs posted for 80, then dropping down to 45, then picking up, and then again… Most of the curves we took at 45 (or more) would have been full stops, and as we eased further down the road and closer to the Twelve Apostles, there was a sudden rush of roads where we would be going 80 as we took hairpin turns – seriously.
I can’t decide my opinion as to those roads and the driving conditions, though I will say that I have a sudden urge to participate in closed-circuit racing.
In the continuing dilemma of food, we did eventually make it back to Geelong, but hoping not to eat the same thing two days in a row, we headed in search of a chicken restaurant (think Swiss Chalet or St. Hubert) that we passed on our way in yesterday. Now, we’ve had some serious food issues in the past couple of days, and things were getting a little out of hand, but there was hope that this would work out.
It didn’t.
Only in Australia would we find a roasted chicken restaurant that is chickenless… We were tired – 5 AM was early, and we hadn’t actually had a meal yet today – and there was only so much driving around we could fathom after 8 hours in the car, so… we found alternative foods at the chickenless-chicken place.
This evening on our way back from the restaurant, we did manage to find a grocer, so we stocked up on snacks, bottled water (that only cost us 89 cents!) and then we went for a walk on the beach.
Geelong is beautiful, even in it’s retro glory. The beach was well-kept, though small, and the sunset was amazing.
Tomorrow we’re off to St. Kilda and the Penguin Parade – and possibly a koala meet-and-greet. We’ve just finished booking our next hotel (oh, please, dear God, let it be free of wool plaid and red vinyl.) The absence of wood panel would be a plus, though not necessary!
Discovery: a budget is almost impossible to stick to when the dollar fluctuates so significantly, and hotel costs mysteriously shoot up. Guh!
Our first beach stop - we got our shoes full of sand (and also our car). It was worth it.
It's incredible what you see when jumping out of your car at the side of the road. There were a lot of gasps of 'awww... pretty...' today. And of course commentary from Ben, though mostly he stuck to things re: his DS
No comments:
Post a Comment