We're Driving a Mercedes....

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We’re Driving a Mercedes...
November 6, 2008

The views from Great Ocean Road from Apollo Bay to Torquay were just as the guidebook described them…spectacular! We stopped at almost every overlook turning a two-hour drive into an all morning affair. My favorite stop was at Lorne, the surfing capital of Australia. I could live there, it’s a gorgeous town. I think Joe liked Bells Beach the best. It’s a popular surfing spot because of the way the waves break. We watched the surfers there for quite a while. Joe was wishing he had a board and wetsuit with him.

There were koalas all over the place, we even had to stop to let one cross the road in front of us. They really must be one of the cutest creatures on earth. We saw more echidnas, too. We are trying to find a wombat, haven’t even seen a dead one in the road.

We arrived in Melbourne around noon as we took our sweet time on the drive. We picked up another “relocation” vehicle. We expected a small van and got a “cab over” camper van made by Mercedes, a much larger vehicle than we expected. We’ve learned that with these relocation deals there can be some surprises. This RV is six meters long and 3.4 meters high. It has two large beds, full kitchen, toilet, shower, even a bathroom sink. Since I haven’t done any driving here, we had to leave the RV in a grocery store parking lot while we drove the Ford rental car downtown to drop it off and took a taxi back to the grocery store. We got a glimpse of Melbourne, looks good.

Other people think this is strange, but we like to grocery shop in other countries. We think it’s fun to see how stores are different from U.S. stores and we like to see what other people are buying. This store today had shopping carts that you had to insert a dollar coin into a slot in order to unhook it from others. If you returned it to the right place you got your dollar back. We were baffled until a kind man explained the process to us. There were no bagels to be found in this giant store, but there were about ten glass cases of fancy pastries and cakes for teatime.

Tonight we are in a caravan park in a part of Melbourne called Braybrook. We did two loads of laundry and cooked dinner, the most domestic work we’ve done in weeks. Our neighbors are nice, but aren’t quite our type. They take off their shoes and put on slippers before they go in their camper trailer. Their laundry is hanging on a line in a symmetrical pattern. Don’t think I’ll invite them in to our camper.

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Photos

Great Ocean Road, Day 2
So many pretty spots on this road. Loved it!

Koala
This koala crossed the road in front of our car, didn't seem to be in any hurry. So darn cute!

Koala in Tree
Hope you can handle another koala photos...can't help myself.

Bells Beach
Joe says these waves, although not big, break "just right" for fun surfing.

Comments

[Lois]

Queen Victoria Mall
I hope while you are in Melbourne you go to the Queen Victoria Mall...quite old...great place for local color and products. Lois