I am writing this from Portland, Victoria. Last night I slept 10 hours after an early morning flight from Chirstchurch to Melbourne. We had just gone to bed in the hotel at the airport when the alarm went off and we all had to evacuate the building for some reason. So I managed just a couple of hours sleep before our 6 am flight. Victoria is two hours behind New Zealand so we set off in the rental car at just 9am after a 4 hour flight.There is only one road out of the airport and it leads you onto a toll road. Not understanding the system I turned down the toll option from Hertz as it seemed it cost 5 dollars a day and we only needed it for 4 hours. Right now I have big problems with speeding fines in the UK, so in the end Anna found that we could buy a day’s pass from the BP garage, which fingers crossed will get me off even more new traffic offences. I am imbroiled in another traffic offence in the UK. I bought a new car in November and made two trips that month – one to Cardiff and one to York.
12 Apostles
Maybe it is my bad habits learned from driving 22 years in Italy (where you are given a 10kph leeway on any limit) but despite thinking I was driving carefully (after all the car is new!) I fell victim on both trips to the speed camera blanket surveillance of Britain. The first I agreed with and was on a spot of the A1 near Nottingham where the speed limit suddenly drops from 70 to 50, because this was an accident blackspot. I got done for doing 58 – OK fair cop and I consequently drove up to Nottingham to pay the and get my 3 points before leaving on this world trip. But how did I get in such a mess with the South Wales police ? Driving from Penarth to Dinas Powys there is a 40 mph limit before you enter DP round a corner. Now maybe my blase’ Italian habits were at fault here but I took my foot off the accelerator on seeing the 30 limit rather than doing an emergency stop, therefore slowing down gradually to 30 mph. Rounding the corner was a manned radar trap just as you enter the 30 zone. It couldn’t have been better placed just inside the 30 zone – on a blind corner. I was done supposedly for doing 34(+-2) mph (while slowing from 40 down to 30 !). So I was done for going at less han a walking pace faster than 30. I then received a strange notice saying that I had elected to do a speed awareness course for 80 quid – of course I hadn’t done so – but phoned anyway. The earliest date for the course was 3rd February past our departure date. Therefore I phoned and wrote several times back and said I would pay the fine and take the 3 point hit on my license, but that I would be out of the country until 4th April. I tried to pay them from Hawaii sending photocopies of license etc. I then phoned them 3 times from New Zealand – but now it seems I will be summoned to court for non payment. The problem is that I cannot send my actual license because it is illegal to drive in US, Australia without it. Sorry for this rant !
Coastal view
We left Melbourne driving past Geelong to take the Great Ocean Road which passes the beautiful sandstone coastline, some wonderful beaches like Bells Beach and ending up in Portland for the night. The first night we stopped in a Basil Fawlty type motel in Anglesea, and took a swim in the surf. The hotel manager was obsessed with the annoying potential stupidity of his guests. Thus we were informed of about 20 different rules, violation of which would cause damage claims on our credit cards – rules like -not moving the television – or turning the key too hard in the lock, or parking backwards and not forwards or even worse – parking in the wrong numbered space. Meanwhile he had a “business for sale” sign up outside – so he really didn’t like people in general or running this place. Leaving Anglesea, we were advised to stop at Kennett River and then take a small road through the eucalyptus forest because in order to see Koala Bears in the wild.
Koala - Kennett River
First thing along the road was a small group of teenage Americans with a packet of bird seeds attracting some beautiful coloured parrots from the trees. These parrots were smart and all the fat ones had learned to trust people.
One Apostle
About a kilometre further up into the forest we suddenly saw one Koala bear in the distance and started taking pictures – only to notice that there was one sitting casually above our heads nonchanently eating a few leaves, having a scratch and generally snoozing.
The sandstone cliffs and beaches on the rugged side of the road are spectacular. The 12 apostles is a big tourist spot but further along there are empty stretches with similar arches and cliffs.
