Bunz wif Gunz go felting in da Grampz - Part 1

After the smoothest check-in in my history, this Bunneh was very excited to enjoy the Virgin Lounge

Great Ocean Road!

once again - aaah, to have Priority Bunneh Kompanyunz!! First stop, after picking up the car and hitting the road was lunch in Torquay, where we enjoyed yummy food, great service, and a lovely view - well done, Torquay! There was great excitement as we saw this sign confirming that
we were, indeed, on the Great Ocean Road! Next stop was the Mantra in Lorne, where I delighted a group of oldies with my appearance (purple suede stiletto boots, black lace-up leggings, long pink hair out...). "Are you here for something special?", they asked. "Just my life", is what I should have replied!! (We passed this group a few times around town that afternoon, even getting a raucous round of applause as we passed them dining on the street. Not even one day in town yet!!) So it was straight out for walking, starting off along the beautiful

Relentless upz!

ocean road and including the pier ('well, as long as one of us wants to go"), but then heading inland, for what became 'relentless ups'!! It just didn't seem to stop! Signage, directions, 'you are here's', times and distances were non-
existent. Walking directions - Lorne, you're doing it wrong!!

At the first opportunity I guided Bunneh towards a downward looking track, and after passing a great

Cheeky cockatoos at Lorne Hotel

sign  (Bush Walkers, turned into Bus Wankers)

Our dinner table!

we passed the lovely sculpture park, where we saw these crash test dummies hanging rather tragically yet beautifully from their posts. We emerged into the township around 6pm, which felt so much earlier to us, and everything was closed! It was such a beautiful afternoon that we decided to head up to the Lorne Hotel, where the Cockatoos posed for photos along the rail, awaiting any opportunity to raid tables. ( Jenelle taught me to remember that the white ones were cockatoos, because the pink ones, like me, are galahs!) One was lucky enough to nab a saucer of tartar sauce, and to everyone's delight, actually flew off with it! Sadly, there were a couple with beak and feather disease - broken beaks and
tattered feathers - very tragic. Unfortunately the disease is untreatable - I hope they have a euthanasia programme for them down there.

Carisbrook

With nowhere really taking our fancy for noms, we decided to do our own, so headed to Foodworks, where we were delighted to find a selection of sushi and Bento boxes. I also found beer, so we assembled a picnic and headed off to the beach to devour - in our active wear!! With around 30 hopeful seagulls...

The next morning we found delishus coffe across the road at the Moon cafe,  and walked along the Erskine River before returning for breakfast at the Mantra. We made the foolish mistake of sitting outside, where the cockatoos were very cheeky, and Jenelle lost her toast to one! Off to Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road, stopping at Sheoak Falls for a supposed ten minute walk.  (Signs, Lorne - you're doing it wrong). The path took us down through a spooky feeling patch of 'corn' (what is IN there?!!) and up, up, up to what might, in wetter times, be the falls....

Merengo

At Carisbrook we stopped to view the recent phenomenon that is the hundreds of stone towers - apparently some tourists built a couple, and people keep adding to them! We stopped at Merengo to start a bit of the Great Ocean Walk,  but had a little trouble finding it, then figuring out what to do when the path petered out onto a beach! After struggling with a giant section of 'UP', we

stopped to assess our situation, and were horrified to see we had made very little progress on the map - the complete opposite of what normally happens to us! We turned back and drove to the Cape Ottway Lighthouse, which we didn't even get to see as they wanted to charge $20, each, just to get there! Hhmmmppph!!  We returned to Apollo Bay, where BB (Blonde Bunneh) was very happy to find  a roast vege salad, and PB (Pink Bunneh) was pretty excited to find this place, the home of the scallop pie!!

Mornay Scallop pie! NOM! It was here that I checked my emails, to find out that my application to go on the study tour to Japan had been accepted!! Squeee!!

R2D2

Scallop Mornay pie and coffee

On return to the Mantra we found that we were locked out of our room, and after BB made two trips to reception, we learned that they thought we were checking out that day, so of course, our room had not been serviced either. (Speaking of the room, can we just show you this amazing piece of machinery, aka R2D2, which was our cold air device. Never seen anything like it!!)

Shaun and sardines

We grabbed our cold drinks and headed to the beach once more, before migrating into the Lorne Pavilion where I dined on tinned sardines, !! We were too lazy to get out of our active wear and go out!! Shaun sheep was much admired, and was asked by the waitress to do a 'sheepy shake', which he performed to her great satisfaction!