Well, we managed to get out the door pretty early - 9:30 am. It would help if Ellis didn't sleep into 8:30 or later. First stop was Geelong - which led to many discussions on how to pronounce Geelong, where we got gas and found out from Sue and Bob that Esme was feeling pretty sick - she had a fever and was cold so they couldn't use the air conditioning (and it was pretty hot out). Next stop was Angelsea, where there was a traffic jam as well as one in Lorne, which was the next town. We went our separate ways in Lorne as Esme and Ava were both feeling rotten - Sue and Bob wanted to go at their own pace and didn't want to hold us back. So off we went. Got about 100 feet our of Lorne and there was a river with some kids swimming in it - "pull over" I said to Cyp (yes, he was driving)
We quickly changed the kids and let them splash around in the river (it was a shallow stream really and I'm not sure why I picked that spot when there were miles of beautiful beaches nearby, but I did). After about 15 minutes, Cyp got a text from Sue - they had just gone through a roadside drinking driving test - the police set these up in a matter of minutes here - in fact, I went through one the other day on our way back to Sue and Bob's. You pull up - a tube gets shoved in your face and the police officer says "blow"
I don't know why - but I felt guilty even though I hadn't been drinking. Afterwards Cyp said
"they just keep reusing the same tube you know."
Anyway, the text got me thinking - we still had a long way to go so we quickly dressed the kids and threw them back in the car and were on our way again. I drove (Cyp got to drive for about 5 minutes). The thing is - because we were driving on the left, we were right next to the cliff and it is very stressful being the passenger right next to the cliff - Cyp can attest to that as he was sure I was going to drive us off the road, down the cliff and into the raging ocean.
We drove and drove, passed beach after beautiful beach - white sand, crystal clear water, waves...then we drove through a beautiful eucalyptus forest - passed walking trails and beautiful woods. The kids slept.
At about 5 we finally made it to the Twelve Apostles (Sue's neighbour Stuart laughed when we told him we were going to see the Twelve Apostles - "you know there's only eight now right? Maybe seven by the time you get there")
We got out and jogged down the path madly swatting at flies. These were the most irritating and bothersome flies (although they didn't bite) - they crawled up your nose, took up camp in your eyes and went tunneling into your ears. As Sue noted, it was like we were starving African children being filmed for World Vision (that's probably not pc is it). It was hot and it seemed that everyone else had the same bright idea for the Christmas hollies.
We suddenly rounded the corner and I heard "oh shit" from the cool youths we had been walking beside. Yup - the Apostles - they really were breathtaking. They made the long drive worth it.
We took picture after picture and then ran back to the car and hopped in. Cyp got to drive as we were heading inland to Camperdown - another 45 minutes away. You can't put the pedal to the metal here in Australia as they are very tough on speeders - no leniency - there is no 10 km grace speed - you're over by 1 km/hr and too bad. We found Sue and Bob at the hotel - they had gotten there about 30 minutes before us - hadn't made it to the Apostles yet - but had stopped for one of the forest walks.
It was about 6 so we quickly hit the town (one street) to find dinner. Bob thought perhaps we could drive and we all jumped on him and said - we need to drink! Bob scoffed a bit about the idea of road checks in this two street town but we walked anyway.
We wandered up one side of the street and then the other - Cyp came trotting up to Sue and me and said that the pub on the corner looked like it had good food s0 we wandered in after debating about it for 10 minutes on the corner. The one other couple inside looked relieved when we walked in.
Just as we were sitting down, Ava started to throw up - uh oh. We quickly exited again - plan 2. I ran across the street to the fish and chips place and the others hit the store to get some food for Ava.
The fish and chips place turned out to be the spot in town for dinner. Everyone in town seemed to drop by and pick up their order as I waited for ours. For good reason too. I got a chicken burger, fish souvlaki, two pieces of fish and chips for three people for $24. It was pretty good too. Just before the orders were being wrapped up, they were salted with this yellow looking stuff. "What's that?" I asked as I was collecting our food - "chicken salt" was the reply. I think.
I should also mention that I got the lot on the souvlaki. "what's the lot?" I asked after being offered it.
"lettuce, onion, tomato, cheese, bacon and egg"
"uh - sure." what the heck for $1 more. I had heard about the lot before, but had forgotten.
I ran back to the hotel with our dinner (passed a road block on the way). Took a picture, but it's on my iphone. Bob headed out as I got back to find pizza for Esme. He came back with a frozen pizza only to discover no oven, so he headed back out to get an already made pizza. He went through the road block twice - so three times in total that day.
I downed three drinks quickly (granted they were smaller than normal - 225 ml) - it was hot about 38 Celcius - so I was pretty much done for the day. Kids went to bed and I think everyone else passed out by about 8:30.
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