Great OceanRoad

Half way through our trip …
John’s new antibiotics seem to be doing the trick better than the last lot but he’s still pretty wobbly. We are taking things VERY slowly and some days we just stay in the van and let him sleep. Other days he feels a bit more sprightly - the other day we “did” some of the amazing sights along the Great Ocean Road - the Twelve Apostles, London Bridge and Loch Ard Gorge. The Great Ocean Road runs along a stretch of the South Australia/Victoria coast and was begun to provide work for soldiers returning from World War I. Parts of it run right along the coast and at other times, it runs inland. We stayed at a small town called Peterborough for 3 days which turned out to be one of the best places to see the icons of the Road - the amazing limestone “stacks” in the ocean which have been sculpted by the sea and the wind. We are here at the height of tourist season, so each place we went to, we were accompanied by masses of other eager tourists. One of the Apostles bit the dust a while ago, dissolving into the sea, (and I don’t think there ever were actually 12), but they are pretty spectacular. They are a lovely, warm golden colour, and with the waves breaking round them and the blue sky behind them, they really take your breath away. London Bridge likewise lost an arch to the sea a few years ago. Loch Ard Gorge is where a British ship, the Loch Ard, went down and the only two people to survive washed up in the Gorge. You have to walk some way to see all these things, and it’s very hot and the flies are terrible. They just don’t LEARN that when you swat them, you don’t want them back! They love to land round your mouth and eyes and although they don’t bite, they are REALLY annoying! We bought a couple of fly swatters for 69c and took them with us, waving them in front of us like windshield wipers which kept most of the flies at least out of our faces. No-one else seems to have figured out this solution, and we got lots of comments and offers (no Zoe, they weren’t commenting about the hat!) A lady from South Africa asked if she could take a photo of us, fly swatters at the ready!
While John has been sick, we have both been reading for lack of much else to do while waiting for the drugs to take effect. We have taken to getting the fattest books we can to keep us going - what we will do with them before we leave Australia, I’m not sure! We both HATE getting rid of books. We’ve both read Dan Brown’s latest “The Lost Symbol”, and John is nearly finished Andre Agassi’s autobiography which I can’t wait to get into. I also read a huge fat book called the Children’s Book - I think we will have to be strong and leave all these gems at the hostel in Melbourne.
We are now in Apollo Bay and I have rented a sun tent so we can at least sit on the beach a bit and John can keep out of the sun. The sea is FREEZING and almost everyone wears wet suits to go swimming. We drive to Melbourne tomorrow along what is apparently the most lovely part of the Great Ocean Road - hope John is feeling well enough to enjoy it. In Melbourne, we are staying at a hostel called The Nunnery which should be interesting. At least we’ll be in one place for a while and hope to get his health back to where it should be.