So my last post was on the 11th and it's now the 18th! I arrived in Apollo Bay yesterday, from Melbourne. The first hour of the trip was by train, then 2 hours by bus along the "Great Ocean Road". This is a very twisty road built right hard along the shore, into the cliffs. So picture the bus, with a driver who is not exactly taking it slow. Me (still somewhat afraid of heights) in this said bus. About 1-2 feet beside the bus (the side I'm sitting on) is a guardrail which is about a foot or so high. IMMEDIATELY after said guardrail - nothing but air. And the bus is leaning out a bit as the driver is hoofing it through the turns. I was looking down some 40-50 meters in places. In 3-4 spots there was one way traffic only (with temp. stop signs) and a second temporary guardrail, because the permanent guardrail didn't have enough dirt to hold it. Washouts... Here one could see that the metal posts holding the guardrail are long, really really long pieces of metal going straight into the ground, somehow trying to find some rock/soil to hold on to. People actually pay for tours to take them along this road, although at least the tour buses drive more slowly. We finally got stuck behind a tour bus which made the rest of the drive a lot easier. That being said, the scenery was nice, what with the cliffs and being able to look out quite far over the ocean.
The hostel in Apollo Bay is the nicest yet. They have two good sized rooms with couches, and even put a fire on in the evening. I played a good game of Scrabble and a couple of games of asshole with some fellow travelers. I'm booked in here for another 9 days, and may extend that to catch up on business.
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