Erik Skye Travel Blog

15 Jan 2012

For the map, click here: Google Maps – Wizard of Oz

Car’s trip odometer: 7,080 clicks (km)

‘These are Mountain Ash, and they grow up to 100 meters high, and they’re the second tallest tree in the world - second only to the Redwoods!’ I parroted to the man who had just rounded the rain forest trail I was on. ‘Before they cut so many down, there were a few taller than the Redwoods,’ he replied. He then added ‘but I’m not going to fight you for it.’ His name is Ian, and we began a nice conversation about the eucalyptus forests of Australia, and then somehow got onto other subjects like energy development, immigration, and discontinuation of America’s space program. Just to sum it all up I declared ‘I think we live in the sweet spot in time – for only in the past 30 years could someone like me come across the world to see new beautiful places like this AND there is still a beautiful world left to see!’ Ian agreed completely, but for other reasons. ‘Yes! I’m 70 and just missed WWII AND Vietnam,’ he added.’

"There were several roads near by, but it did not take her long to find the one paved with yellow brick...  She was surprised, as she walked along, to see how pretty the country was about her.  There were neat fences at the sides of the road, painted a dainty blue color, and beyond them were fields of grain and vegetables in abundance...  After a few hours the road began to be rough, and the walking grew so difficult that the scarecrow often stumbled over the yellow brick, which were very uneven.  Sometimes, indeed, they were broken or missing altogether, leaving holes that Toto jumped across and Dorothy walked around.  As for the scarecrow, having no brains, he walked straight ahead, and so stepped into the holes and fell at full length on the hard bricks...  The farms were not nearly so well cared for here as they were farther back.  There were fewer houses and fewer fruit trees, and the further they went the more dismal and lonesome the country became...  There were no fences at all by the road side now, and the land was rough and untilled.  Toward evening they came to a great forest, where the trees grew so big and close together that their branches met over the road of yellow brick...  There were few birds in this part of the forest, for birds love the open country where there is plenty of sunshine; but now and then there came a deep growl from some wild animal hidden among the trees..."^21

The Great Ocean Road runs along the coastline of Victoria and was built as a memorial to her WWI veterans.  I started from the west (Warrnambool) and proceeded through a tapestry of fenced wheat fields, windmills, and farm houses.  Soon, I was on a small country road paralleling the rugged sea cliffs, darting into pull offs to make mini-pilgrimages along paths to lookouts with other tourists.  There are many well known features that have resulted from millions of years of wave action against the land, including the Twelve Apostles, which are a series of eight grand rock stacks left by the reatreating shore.  The road then tightly twisted through the Great Otway National Park containing beautiful examples of eucalyptus trees, such as the magnificent Mountain Ash as mentioned above.  The eastern portion of the route is a gauntlet of tightly-twisting turns rising and falling along the steep hills.  The trendy towns are to the east also, such as pretty Lorne filled with cafe's, surf shops, and summer homes.

I pulled over to get a representative picture of the beach and noticed a man contemplating fishing out on the rocks.  He was in a suit, and I positioned one set of rocks away, finally yelling with a smile ‘are you going to cast that thing?’ He smiled back, and I kept on him with the camera. I finally hopped onto the same set of rocks with him. To be polite, I began conversation (not that setting up a photo shoot one set rocks away and focusing on someone is polite). He exclaimed back “Turkish!” To him it meant ‘I don’t speak English’, but to me it explained why he would be wearing a suit in this situation.

I figured I had enough fun with the Turkish fisherman in the suit and started walking away when I heard two women in head scarves yelling. I looked back, and the Turkish fisherman was walking to them as he held up his fishing pole with a fish on the hook. ‘Yeah!’ I yelled as I walked past them, continuing ‘now you’ll have to make me fish kabobs!” They smiled, and the man repeated ‘kabobs!’ in recognition of my perceptive comment. 15 minutes later, as I pulled away from the beach in the car, I noticed the Turkish fisherman had made his way to a set of rocks on the opposite end of the beach from me.

For song of the day, click here (let website load briefly, then click orange “play” next to title): The Shins – Simple Song

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Footnotes:

21.  L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz (The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1903) pp. 20-21, 28-29, 45-46.