The Great Ocean Road, Part 1

You might remember I won a limbo contest at a bar about a month ago. The prize was a day trip down the Great Ocean Road and, having never heard of the GOR before, I had little expectations. After all, it was a limbo competition. At a bar. Don’t they usually just hand out free t-shirts for stuff like that?

Well, Becky, Hinnerk, Curtis and I headed out (at 6:30am… grumble, grumble) on the road trip last Tuesday, and let me tell you, it was wayyyy better than a free t-shirt, early start and all.

We stayed up way too late the night before to watch our roommate play at an open mic night in St Kilda. Because James was playing, they gave us a $50 bar tab and 2 for 1 drink specials which, unfortunately thankfully didn't go very far between seven people. He sang really well, but the guitarist who was accompanying him kept throwing him off by switching up the tempo of the song and then laughing about it. It was vair, vair annoying, and Becky and I may or may not have yelled “Give him back the guitar!” a few times…

He finally got the hint.

Anyways, after only about four hours of sleep we awoke the next morning and groggily walked to the pick-up location. When we boarded the bus, I recognized the Haitian guy who was sitting towards the back, strumming angelically on his guitar.

“Hey! You played at Base Bar last night, right? I have a million pictures of you!” Which doesn’t make me sound like a stalker at all, no.

He laughed, told me his name was Nikerson, and gave me his website so that I could send him some of the pics. Turns out he’s a bit of a world-wide star, and is tentatively scheduled to play in Montreal as part of Les FrancoFolies next year. I’ll try to get more details so those of you in Montreal can go see him!

He played us a few tunes, including a fantastic impression of Celine Dion, and we were off, racing out of the city opposite the early morning rush-hour traffic. After a small nap, we awoke to find that we were driving towards… a forest fire? Hmm...

As I'm sure you know, forest fires are extremely common (and destructive) in Australia. Our tour guide/bus driver Clancy told us how the GOR has been completely wiped out quite a few times, which was not all that reassuring as we headed toward this wall of smoke.

Clancy switched on the radio and we were soon informed that there would be some “controlled fires” (oxymoron?) going on in the area today.

Clancy giggled into the microphone. “Well, let’s hope this is one of them!”

We made a quick scenic stop at the famous surfer haven, Bells Beach, to stretch our legs and take a few photos. Despite the possible impending doom, it was a beautiful, warm, and perfect day. 

Here I am with Hinnerk, Curtis, Nikerson and Becks.

We continued driving and Clancy pointed out a funny house along the road. Apparently the owner got so sick of rebuilding his place after a forest fire (to which he lost three houses!) that he decided to build something that was untouchable to the fiercest roaring flames. And after the deadly fire of 1985, his was the only house that remained standing.

Despite its obvious lack of style, this one-bedroom popsicle sold for a whopping four million dollars last year.

Next we stopped at a WWI memorial, or rather, the memorial for a WWI memorial, as the first statues had been destroyed in the fire of ’85. The whole Great Ocean Road was actually a government initiated project designed to provide work for the thousands of jobless soldiers returning from battle. Curtis decided to give them a hand.

After snapping a few pictures, we were back on the road, and getting ever closer to the menacing hedge of smoke. Before we knew it, the grey and orange clouds were upon us. [Cue dramatic Jaws music]

… to be continued…