Melbourne Family Trip Oct 2012 - Day 2 Great Ocean Road

Matthew from the tour agency arrived early to pick us up for our private tour to Great Ocean Road. He was a wonderful guy with great humor. Unfortunately he only speaks English and I soon realized a problem; most of my senior relatives do not understand English very well. I have booked all the tours in English as they were cheaper and I thought that among my siblings and I, we can alternate as translators. However this proved challenging since the seniors felt insecure when not knowing what was going on. And let me tell you, translating jokes was never my strong point. When they wouldn't let it go and insisted to understand every bit of the conversation, I was really to blow.

Luckily I have my brother with me and he was one patient and jovial guy. He did most of the translations with his misguided interpretation and put a lot of twists to them. Ended up the group were laughing more and Matthew had to ask if he was missing out on the fun. I caught up fast and was soon dishing up my version of facts plus a little imagination. They wouldn't know what they missed out anyway.

It was all uphill from then. Soon we reached the start of our great ocean drive. The view was fantastic. There are Australian native bushes and shrubs land on one side of the road and the coastal view of cliffs plunging down to white wash waves on the other side. We learned that the road is 243km long and it took around 3000 returned solders to build the road by hand. I will give the highest salute to these good old men for their vision and determination. As we drove, the view became ever more stunning. We visited the Twelve Apostles, London Bridge and stroll along the beaches. It was a long and tiring day but we had great fun.


The 4 of the 12 Apostles