Qdos Lorne

G'day up top!

It's finally spring in the down under (Sept 1 was the official first day of spring)!!!! We've been having a fair bit of wind and rain here, but the temperature is starting to climb (hit 80 degrees already), so in between the blows we have been heading out to the bush, trying to get a flavor of the Aussie countryside and coast.

So needing a fix of surf and sand, fish and chips, we decided to load up ...

... amazing morning we hit the road again heading East towards Lorne. We drove through lots of the Great Otway National Park which has quite a lot of varied scenery and then we headed down to the Cape Otway Lightstation, where we went up in the lighthouse and had a bit of a stretch of the old legs ( I mean young legs). Then in the late afternoon we drove on what was the most iconic piece of driving of our trip, with the Great Ocean Road clinging to the coast ...

... Otway where there is a lighthouse and loads of ships have crashed into the coastline so we thought we head down to see any ship wrecks and pirate ghosts. However, as we were driving down we saw a car stopped and the owners staring up at the trees. We thought mmmm... what they looking at and stopped. Hundreds of Koala Bears were hanging around in the trees. We hadn't ...

... great a few skills would have been gleaned, interesting people met along the way but as I read the handbook all I got mas one major headache.....a little voice peeped out the fusion project.......maybe there's some cool woofing place...look here's a lovely commune vibes sound great.....HEAD ache splitting.....the little voice at the back of the head THE F****ing FUSION PROJECT....that's what you fecking well ought to be doing. And so my dream was resurrected. The Fusion Project is a ...

... and bought alcohol so from then on the time just flew by!! Bells beach was not what i was expecting at all it was just a tiny little cove on the coastline with nothing to suggest that anyone has ever actually been there! I guess that's nice in a way but i did expect more from it considering it was so famous in the surfing world.

... in the afternoon and for breakfaxt the next morning ...which was a first for us in a B&B but not for Tony by the looks of things...certainly a man who knows how to enjoy life. Another couple who were stopping (Jess & Art...short for Arthur) were meant to be camping until they found half their gear missing and ended up at Tony's. Jess was from ...

... Close by was the Bay of Martyrs, which presented a similar image, of rock formations popping up in the sea, being gradually eroded away by the stormy waves. The Grotto was up next, a rockpool beneath an archway ...

... slowly erodes them away one by one. We walked down a steep staircase to the beach and admired the first 2 "Apostles" as the sun set. Leaving Princetown the rest of the Apostles pop up very quickly. We parked the car and walked down the wooden walkways to the edge of the cliffs along the shoreline. The view was breathtaking - the sun was low in the sky, sending rays of light through a heavy cloud, which was making the light ...

... My chest exploded inside as he drifted over the centre line. He was headed for the cliffs edge. I don't remember much else, time tends to stand still in these situations. It's a helpless and horrible position to be in really. All you are is a speechless witness. As it's something I've experienced first hand I reckon I felt as much relief as he did when the back end of that Honda ...

... tickets available, which made for quite an excellent show. For those of you not familiar with Bela Fleck, he is widely considered the best Banjo picker in the world. Their music is a mixture of bluegrass, blues, fusion and jazz. I also think they recently won the Best Contemporary Jazz album at the 2007 Grammy Awards. I had interviewed the bass player when I was working with Tempo Magazine back in SC ...