10 Great Ocean Road - Day 3

Apollo Bay















leave me alone and let me catch some Z
Today we said good bye to Apollo Bay and continued our journey on the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne.  Unlike the last section, the first part of this drive provided some superb views of the ocean and the beaches. Our first stop was Kennett River where we spotted the koala bears the night before. We found 5 this time!  And one of them was at a low branch; if you are tall enough, you can reach up and touch it. They all looked so cute sleeping.





tidal pool
Next we went across the road to the beach where a river flows out to the ocean. Since this is Saturday, there are more people on the beach, especially young families. It is low tide in the morning, and there are a number of shell fish and little fish in the tidal pools.

By the time we left, it was past noon and we needed to return the car by 3:30. So we drove directly to Bells Beach to finish the remaining of our stash of food for lunch and watch people surfing. Although the sea was relatively calm today, a few of them were quite good and were able to ride the wave to where they want, and stop and fall in the water themselves.

We got to the Melbourne hotel at 3:10. The guy at the front desk was quite nice and he let us drop off everything so we could run off to return the car. We experienced our first "right turn from the left most lane" on our way to Hertz. At the first turn, people gave David a finger because we were blocking the lane to go straight. Look up this unique Melbourne only Hook Turn!  When we saw the ‘special sign’ at the next intersection, David got into the left lane so the cars behind him could go straight and made the turn when there were no oncoming traffic and those travelling beside you. It makes sense with what they are doing, but it is quite unnerving for a newcomer.



 We had dinner at the Flower Drum Restaurant (萬壽宮).  The restaurant used to be rated as one of the top restaurants in Australia for a few years. The dinner is superb, everything from the clam pieces to the mango dessert is excellent, and the service is impeccable (especially for a Chinese restaurant). Since they served each plate individually, the dinner took forever and I ate more than I normally did … I was still stuffed after walking back to the hotel.

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