The Great Ocean Road

Imagine what day light saving time could do to the fragile human planning. Unaware and unconcerned of man-made rules to control daylight I planned an early morning but a day long trip in Melbourne. I didn't know about the daylight time saving change, therefore I set my alarm for 6:15 am, thinking one hour would be enough for grooming. Lazily I tried hard to open my beer soaked heavy eyelids, rebelling against their will to continue sleeping. Last night’s beer session at the river Yarra was the culprit and had enslaved me. In the early morning hallucinating phase I suddenly realized to check my eagerly awaited important mail. I opened my laptop and my eyes were immediately drawn to Windows Date and Time. I felt butterflies in my stomach and my eyes rolled hysterically in astonishment. My computer clock was showing me 7:20 am but my mobile, landline, wrist watch, etc. showed 6:20 am. Suddenly, I the words by elderly lady at Melbourne tourist center echoed in my ears as she had told me about time change but I didn't understand and care about it. I realized my blunder. Yes, I had lost one hour and it was actually 7:20 am. The first thought that flashed to my mind was to return back to sleep and forget about my Great Ocean Road Trip. My bus was leaving at 7:45 am and I had just 25 minutes left to catch it. My $122 expenditure for the ticket motivated me to not to run it through the drain and give it a try. Moreover, I knew that this was the only weekend for me to go out. Had I stayed back, I would loose this weekend also. Therefore, I gathered all my courage to go for my quick dry clean. There was no time for shower, I changed my clothes, dumped stuff in my bag and left the hotel room for my great trip.

I coursed my way through the maze of unknown Melbourne downtown’s streets and lanes. Panting heavily, I barely managed to reach in time after sacrificing my shower and morning coffee. Obviously, it wasn't a great feeling to go on a long day trip with remnants of last night's food lying in your stomach but I learnt to live with it as the day progressed.

It was a double-decker bus and I was ushered to the upper deck by a beautiful young blonde dressed in her neat uniform. The bus had blue velvety seats with abstract images of starfish and sea-shells. The big glass windows in the bus rendered a terrific 180 degree panoramic view of the whole journey. In retrospect, I don’t regret shelling extra dollars for these extra big windows.

It was a long trip that lasted for more than twelve hours. The major attraction started with Melbourne's longest bridge – Gateway to the West – and continued until we reached a scenic place with immense ocean in view. The immensity combined with serenity had captivated the senses to forget the world around me. I was overwhelmed with this creation of nature that left me awe-struck. The driver broke my day-dream when he started serving us cakes, cookies, jam, and morning tea. The bus was fitted with a PA system for a guided tour by the driver. The driver was a handsome man in his forties, neatly dressed in formal blue pants and well creased white shirt. His goatee extended till his chin and created a natural anchor on his face, otherwise he was clean shaved. He was very amiable and cooperative through the trip. Apart from driving the bus he also guided us in real time, with his heavy Australian accented husky voice. He presented facts and history in a very exciting and interesting way with vivid descriptions and intricate details.

At 12:00 pm the bus stopped again at for lunch. Before this, we had already seen the grand entrance of Great Ocean Road. The road apparently was built by workers in 19^th century using hands and shovels. At the lunch venue, I stepped inside an old, aged, coffee shop. It seemed that the old lady, may be the owner, also grew up with her restaurant. The lines on her face were the reflection of the old furniture, dull walls, and aging floor of the restaurant. The wall at the entrance was made up of glass and the view through that opened in the vast ocean in the front. There was an old water filter kept on the wooden slab made in the front glass wall at the entrance. The water was continuously dripping through its old worn out tap. To prevent the wooden floor to get wet with unwanted water leakage, a glass was kept on a folded wet towel suggesting that the leakage is permanent and trivial for the owner. The whole ambience added unquestionable authenticity to the place. I was hungry and looked for something familiar in southern hemisphere exotic food menu. I ordered for bacon-tomatoes-scrambled egg with toast. Yes, they were serving breakfast all day long, and I didn't want to eat lunch. While waiting for the breakfast I could not resist the temptation for cappuccino and ordered one. The cappuccino surprisingly was served by a young lady with a wide and genuine smile of hospitability. The bus started again to take us back on the Great Ocean Road.

The seat in front of me was occupied by newly married Indian couple. May be they were not newly married but they were surely in deep love. They were more than a normal couple as I could see the profound love for each other in their eyes. I did not want to see their showers of cheek kisses, cheek hugs on each other as they talked right in each other's eyes. The girl was sitting diagonally to me; therefore I could see her shyness, cheek hugs, shoulder naps, and continuous giggling. That moment I missed someone so much that it is inexplicable in words. I need to create another dictionary to capture that immense and deep feeling of emotions and love. Not only this, since the couple was right in front of me, doing cute acts of love, I missed her more and more.

The bus traveled through a stretch of tall eucalyptus trees – naked but habitation of cute koalas. Cuddled against the branches and sitting innocently, they were too beautiful to be missed. The bus was rendered white with flashes of camera and clicks of cameras continued until no koalas were in sight.

Later, our bus moved to the coastal area with ocean on one side hugging beautiful hills on the other. Blades of lush green grass made the hills look even more beautiful and unreal. With blue on my left and green on my right, I felt myself as a painter drawing a dark gray line of the road to separate them as I cruised along. The beaches were amazingly clean but deserted, and abandoned. May be, I felt that because of the scarce population of Australia. Some beaches had sea weeds resting in the clean, shining sand and some had rocks protruding out of water and sand. The topography of the land was mesmerizing and engrossing and mind boggling.

The bus finally reached 12-Apostles where we had an option of Helicopter ride. I really wanted to do that, to see the sea and land from 1000 feet in the helicopter. I went for 15 minutes flight to 12-Apostles and London Bridge. It cost me $120 in a four-seater copter with the same couple from my bus, the pilot and I. Three of us got seated into the helicopter by the ground staff. I took the front seat, while the couple settled on the rear-seat. Head phones with microphone attached were provided to communicate with the pilot and fellow passengers. The helicopter left the lush green ground and as it gained the height I could feel butterflies in my tummy. Unlike airplane, helicopter was very unstable, shaky, and felt dangerous. However, the ride was breathtakingly awesome and left me amazed for days to come. The flight from the helipad to London Bridge through 12-Apostles went over the land with sea to my left, but while coming back, the copter was over the sea and the land was on my left. It was scary to ride the copter over the sea, especially when I am not a swimmer and hardly know the basic of swimming. Fortunately, god helped us and nothing happened as we landed safely on the ground to return back to Melbourne.

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