heads down bottoms up: back in civilisation

heads down bottoms up

This new skin brings about a fresh new beginning, a change, reminding us the importance of looking at things from another perspective so that we may learn to understand and accept all that we see for not what they appear to be, but what they truly are.

Monday

back in civilisation

Speeding is like a drug. The more you do it; the more you need to do it. It has taken me mere 5 days of driving in ever changing speed limits on the strip of the great ocean road to develop a tolerance to speeding. Despite the sharp bends and curves along the coastline, speed limits often reached 100km/h, and cars would suddenly appear in your back mirror within a glimpse of the second. There is no wonder why driving at 70km/h feels like walking pace to me nowadays. In fact, i am finding it rather difficult to keep to a speed limit of 60km/h these days.

A couple of days ago, i farewelled a good friend as he returns to the sunshine coast for a month or so. I drove out to southern cross station with all his luggage and parked illegally, luckily escaping a parking ticket as i returned 20mins later to retrieve Olley (Yes, i have decided to give my beloved sedan an identity). Confident that my navigation skills have improved after our road trip and probably better than most, ahem, i decided to rely on my newly gained skill and intuition to direct me back onto dandenong road, instead of using the wiser melways. Not that this is a surprise to anyone anymore, i lost my way, again. I normally don't panic in these familiar situtations, but this time, i think i almost did. I ended up driving behind the Vodafone Arena; the opposite side of the city i was supposed to be, doing random three-point-turns thinking the road belonged to me, getting caught up in a 'no through road' and being beeped at by 2 taxi drivers. How strange it feels to be sharing the road with other cars again. Despite all the drama and calm chaos, i eventually found my way out by following road signs. I glanced at the time as i arrived home, and realised it's taken me so long to find my way home that my friend was already on the plane.

Given my recent lethargic and can't-be-bothered-with-anything attitude, i am going to take the easy way out and ask that you all follow this link to find out more about our great ocean road trip.

There are, however, a few experiences that i would like to recap on in slightly more detail. Apart from the first night staying at the magnificent Wye River camping site, that has been essentially reduced to a small trickle of water, the other 4 days were rather spontaneous and didn't quite go as planned.

Prepared for some gourmet cooking and scrumptious dinner, followed by a warm shower after a long day of driving, we arrived at our second campsite at Stevenson's Falls only to find ourselves greeted with two dirty compost toilets, soggy bug-and-leech invested grass area and a campfire. No power, no light; nothing. It was quite an adventure just to find our way to the campsite. Driving around and around in circles in what seemed a deserted and secluded camping ground, we decided that our feet were slightly more reliable. Stepping foot into the forest setting, following the one and only road sigh which was supposed to direct us to the camping site, we ventured into the unknown. About 1km in, the dirt track narrowed just enough to fit one person through at a time, and another road appeared beside us, apparently out of nowhere. Overwhelmed with excitment and laughter, we hurried along the track in hope of arriving at the site soon. But to our disbelief, after walking 1.5km, we realised we were walking along the track we were just driving on a few minutes ago. Battered and exhausted and in hysterics over our stupidity, we dragged our heavy legs back to the car to share the good news. In desperation, as the sun was closing in on us, we ended up plopping ouselves down on the patch of grass back towards the beginning. Not satisfied with dining on simple fruits and beans for the night, we believed that nothing should stand in our way of feeding our tummies with gourmet food, even without any electricity. Using what's left in the flask of hot water, a pot and a rice cooker barely supported with three large logs around a camp fire, we managed to whip up a delicious beef minced pasta, ash-covered potatoes with a fruit salad by 10:30pm. Satisfied with our efforts, we dined with bugs and dampened air, under a single torch, the moon and the stars.

The next day was no less of an adventure. After a bad night of sleep, i silently dozed off in the car as we made our journey down to cape otway for our third day, under the well trusted navigational skills of a travel-mate. But perhaps, we shouldn't have put too much trust on one person.

Me: As i opened my eyes to the coastline, the only words i could utter out was 'wow, it's so beautiful.' After a moment of silence, i continued, 'it looks strangely like the...'
Person A: "omg it is the 12 apostles..."
Person B: Angrily, "Keegan..."

We were rougly 100km out from where we were planning to stay for that night. Too tired from the journey and immersed into the magnificent scenery, the navigator managed to escape an ear full. No stress, as we eventually managed to find a camping ground at Port Campbell nearby to settle in for the night. Barging into the kitchen with our burnt pots and pans from the campfire the night before, and our esky stashed with gourmet hoikien noodles and vegetable soup, we were ready for some dinner. Feeling rather uneasy and self-absorbed, we dispersed the scent of beautiful cooked gourmet dinner to the seats nearby where other campers were dining with their BBQ sausages and 2 minute fantastic noodles. Gosh it felt good.

The not quite water proof tent was almost falling apart under the gushing wind that night at Port Campbell, and although an adventurous sleep, ahem, it wasn't particulary pleasant. Nonetheless, it was another memorable experience, especially when the person beside you wakes up an says, "I had a dream. I dreamt of opening up the tent and finding a prawn inside," then forgetting the whole story the day after.

Our fourth day was one full of walking and hiking. Due to the unforeseen diuretic effect of tea the night before, my bladder was filling up rapidly as we approached moonlight head. It was going to be a good 40min hike down to the bay, so i decided to pull over at a luxurious moonlight head resort to empty before proceeding. I walked into the resort with all politeness and caution and found myself greeted by two middle-aged couple.

Me: "Hi, how you going?"
Woman: "Good, how can i help you?"
Me, smiling, : "I was hoping to borrow your bathroom if that's okay." At this point, the woman was about to lift her arm and direct me through, but...
Man: "No."
Me, in disbelief, but still smiling, thinking it was a joke: "Umm.."
Man: "No you can't, we're in a drought and we don't have enough water."
Me, blank-faced: "Are you being serious?"
Bastard: "Yes, we don't have enough water as it is, we can't afford the water."
Me, standing in shock, wondering whether he was still playing with me, or whether i should crack it, but instead uttered, "oh, ok."
Bastard. So much for luxurious resort. Dickhead.

So, refusing to pee in the bush, i clung onto the full bladder with tonic contraction of my sphincter muscles for the whole hike, which led us nowhere. We later found out that we went down the wrong path but followed the correct signage.
On the same day, a few hours later, we went for another 3hour hike down to station beach and rainbow falls. Enduring all the scratches and aching muscle pain from unforgiving eccentric muscle activity, we made it there and back before getting trapped by high tide. Damn those steep sandunes.

Our last day lash night was probably the most memorable. Memorable not because of the glory, but because of its stupidity. Throughout the whole trip, the boys kept saying, we need to spend a day at the beach, and well, you asked for it. We stayed here or 14 hours. The same place for 14 hours.
After a good four hours of belly surfing (yes, that is surfing with your belly, nothing else) and scoffing down succulent chicken and tuna pasta salad with a dash of balsamic and lemon dressing before the sand gets to it, we return to the car exhausted and battered with wet sand down our pants and tops. We were all more than ready to drive home to melbourne, picking up a chilled coke and ice cream on our way back.

If something can go wrong; it will go wrong

The car wouldn't start. Shit.

The engine was fine. The batteries were fine. The starter motor was fine. The key wasn't. Five phones, one with reception, one with battery.

The RACV arrived lengthy wait whilst we munched on dry just right cereal and hydrated ourselves with what's left in the wate flask. After a brief examination of the car, no more than 15 minutes, we were hit by the verdict that the key, not the car, was the problem. The key had been soaked in saltwater. Sometimes, security can be a nuisance.

By 9:30pm, the sole taxi driver of the entire Apollo Bay arrived to pick us up from Johanna Beach. Three of us jumped in while the other two were left behind in the dark, lonely beach carpark. The over-friendly and cheerful driver, alan, carried a sense of eeriness to me. He reminded me strangely of the movie Wolf Creek. The ride was essentially fine until suddenly he took a turn into a dark side street, without informing us, then turned off the lights and engine. My friends probably couldn't tell right there and then, but i absolutely freaked out. A friendly stranger offering a lift to three stranded young teenagers in the depths of the night, turning into unfamiliar places. Doesn't that seem like wolf creek all over again. For who knows what could've happened. Apparantly he wanted us to look out for glow worms. My goodness.

We ended up crashing at his place for a few hours whilst waiting for the key to be brought down to Apollo Bay from Melbourne. Spliting his cold dinner comprising of chips and calamari rings and warm lasagna, he offered to feed us. In return, i helped him with his dishes. Alan left us, strangers, in his house for a good 20 minutes while he went off to pick others up. Although i was companied by a couple of friends, i have to say, i freaked out again. But luckily, we survived to tell the story, and Alan was probably the best stranger we met on our trip. Saved our day.

I shall upload some photos when i get to them.

posted by sciurine @ 2:17 PM

2 Comments:

At 11:57 PM, gneake said…

nice recap. more detailed than mine. also, don't you have YOUR pictures?
At 4:36 PM, sciurine said…

thanks =) It wasn't meant to be that detailed, until i found myself hypnotised and kept typing and typing, and my fingers just didn't stop on command. Damn i'm addicted.
And my pictures wouldn't come up on my camera...it says 'memory card full' but when i press review it says 'no images to review'. What the?!