Day 102 - January 2

Woke up in the car to the sound of a tow truck about to tow a car behind us. Guess that was a sign that we should probably drive away. We headed toward the beach for a morning swim. Jumped in the ocean and it was freakin cold! I remember doing this for summer camps. It was called a polar bear dip.

We stopped by the Lorne visitor centre and asked for suggestions on what to see in the area and also directions to places that we already want to see. Visitor centres are gold for backpackers. Always look for them. Sometimes they'll have info on free events too.

Erskine Falls was our next destination. We got a little lost, but eventually found it. Parked in the parking lot and started our 80 metre hike to the falls. The falls weren't as big as I thought they would be. We decided to check out longer trail and hiked down 150 metres to the second platform. At this platform there was a really huge stone rock wall that we climbed up. It was a great view of the fern gully.

We went back to the Great Ocean Road in Lorne. We saw a big pier and stopped to check it out. Some locals were jumping off of it into the ocean. It was about 18 feet from the water.

I was pretty scared, but just went for it.

It was a lot of fun jumping in though. Refreshing for a hot day.

Not the best Ryu jumpkick...

Passed by an interesting river...

Our next stop was to look for Koalas in the wild. Craig has never seen Koalas. Back at the Lorne visitor centre, the lady told us to visit the Koala Cafe, by Kennett River, as there are Koalas in the surrounding trees.

We didn't see any by the cafe, so we drove up Grey River Road. We saw a couple of them high in the trees. It was when we turned around to get back on the Great Ocean Road that we got to see a wild Koala really close up.

I think we lucked out there. Kinda rare for a Koala to be so low to the ground. They are usually very high up in the trees.

We headed toward Apollo Bay and went straight to the visitors centre to get some hostel information.

He's suffocating a bug in his eyelid.

We were told to book at Surfside Backpackers. We got 2 beds for $28 each in a 6 person dorm room. Sweet! No cramped car sleeping for us tonight. 

Since I heard that Apollo Bay is a great place to learn surfing, we went to book surfing lessons for $55 that included a board, wetsuit rental and a 2 hour lesson for the next day. Pretty good deal I'd say.

I decided that we should head for another trail: Marriners Falls. We drove on a dangerous and windy road. The road was also narrow and the you couldn't see if there was on coming cars around the turns since we were kinda driving through a forest. We parked and hiked to the falls. It was an hour hike there and back. When we got there, we were very disappointed since the Fall was really small. I'd rename it crappy falls.

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Marriners Falls.

Balancing rocks.

I cooked chicken pasta for the both of us while Craig made guacamole and chips. After dinner we played some pool, surfed the internet, then went to bed.