Word by Kelvin. Images by Paul
I had been looking forward to this weekend away. Getting out and about on a picturesque seaside drive is one of my favorite things to do.
And in a beautiful part of Victoria.
We all met at the Altona shopping center out on the west side of Melbourne and huddled together in the cold sipping our coffees and eating chocolate and date scones that Gordon had just whipped up the night before.
Lyric and Sean (possible new members) had come along in Lyric’s Ford Everest, Gordon and Paul in pure Volvo leather ecstasy, Leigh and Phillip in nothing other than a Citroen Picasso, Leigh has a Citroen for every occasion. And Luke and I in Nugget, Luke’s gold Mitsubishi 380. As always at a Motafrenz event we have a great assortment of cars.
Gordon being super organized as usual had printed out our weekend itinerary with every detail we could possibly need and handed them out to each car. We decided not to dilly dally around as it was too cold and jumped in our cars, cranked up the heaters and headed off.
Our first stop was the Memorial Arch. We had another round of coffees and also Lyric’s muffins as we soaked up the sea air and had a quick walk to the beach to check out the ocean views.
On to our next stop was Teddy’s Lookout at Lorne, which was rather popular and then on to lunch in Apollo Bay. Of course lunch had to be fish and chips and we all had a great meal looking over the ocean.
Before we settled into our accommodation for the night we had one more stop and that was the Otway Adventure Tree Top walk. As we set off inland and up into the hills the rain started and didn’t really stop. Gordon and Paul decided it was too cold, Leigh and Phillip were worried the Citroen would get the sniffles so it was left to Lyric, Sean, Luke and I to enjoy the freezing, wet tree top walk. Oh did I mention it was freezing and wet. All jokes aside it was amazing. Suspended on steel bridges way up in the canopy with 360 views of the landscape was worth getting a little cold and wet.
We all settled into our accommodation for the night and everyone came over to socialize and have a few wines before heading on to dinner. The local pub was our choice for the night and we settled down to a nice meal. Our very intellectual conversations were interrupted by the live band starting up in the venue beside us so wedecidedtoheadbacktoourapartmentforanicecupofteaandsomebiscuits. But not before Gordon had a little listen to the band, describing the chestnut brown haired lead singer to the rest of us on our walk home.
In the morning after some deliberation on where we should eat our breakfast and a few passes of the Main Street of Apollo Bay we had a lovely breakfast and then set off for the Cape Otway lighthouse, 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and then lunch in Port Campbell. After lunch was our final destination London Bridge.
Spectacular views, great company and many laughs really made this trip for me. We all had a chance to tell a story or two (I’ll never look at ginger the same way ever again Lyric.) and just have a fun, relaxing weekend away with interesting people.
We shared out the last of the Tim Tams and snakes in the car park at the London Bridge and then headed home. A great weekend away.
