On a whim I wanted to go on a holiday. My no-birthday gift milked beyond measure and anniversary far far away I had no occasion or reason. Hence just resorted to a temper tantrum and I landed myself across the equator into the southern hemisphere to this lovely Aussie holiday in 3 days flat from fury to flight-courtesy Amol(He is the gender equality adjusted version of Sati- Savitri to Kasturbha Gandhi kinda dutiful spouse who loves me to a fault) with some help from our always right Mr. Dias.He made us fly Srilankan airlines and rightly so-food & hospitality was on point from our neighbours- Auobowan Mr. Dias ( Sinhalese greeting that translates to May one have a long life)
Australia - March this time, at the cost of sounding pompous was like we had never left.
We landed in the same airport that we left 360 days ago- drove the same car from the same rental. The similarities end here.
The drive to Yarra valley was in good time before the last light. We quickly followed it with a refreshing spa and sauna to the kookaburra songs in our air BnB. Then we were turned down by 5 diners but Dave the friendly hairy pizza guy came to our rescue. This one Coronary congealing meal outdid our year long healthy eating and living. But we were on a vacay. So who cared.
Early morning we headed to Philip island via the fern and mountain ash thickets. Trees were so tall(over 85mts Burj is 859 mts)and so old(avg age was 300 years) and air awash with "Nilgiri tel". 100 kms of this and a Yarra river walk halt at Warburton fuelled by Pies and icecream we reached our next Air BnB in gpod time. We drove to recharge our Tesla but the charging station was occupied. All permutations and variations of Murphy's laws of EV charging had emboldened us and we drove ahead to the Noobies at sunset. Golden hour and golden pics(The vacation was still young and tempers were still good).A draining battery didnt trigger anxiety.
We went back to the charging station and put the car to charge with as much zen that remains after punching in 3 credit cards, the first 2 were rejected and we had a total of 3, starting and restarting charging 3 times. If charging didnt happen we had to share the burrows with the penguins under the stars for the the night. The penguin parade is nice and penguins are small but punctual They come in when adequately dark and the spectators are numbed with boredom or with the cold winds of the Southern Ocean.
.We reached back hungry and dissappointed for the second night(all diners close at 8pm).And we had lost a bag in the charging melee. We drove back to retrieve it. A wallaby jumped in front of our car.Amol braked hard.The car stopped. The wallaby stopped. Then the wallaby jumped and bonked his head hard on a stalled car.Just to make his jump in front of a speeding car worthwhile, so what if the car stopped before killing him. Also we found a racoon, many bunnies and a wild rat enroute. We got turned away at the barricade by an Aussie cop with English expletives( somehow they dont sound so bad in English mouthed by a white guy)
The bag had 2 chargers- definitely not worth the drive at night in terms of money,time and effort but logic doesnot work 12000 kms away from home. We also argued about unresolved issues some dating back to our previous births also(Janmo ke saathi waala pyaar accounting for the "vadachi punam" fasts)I had the best deep sleep recorded by my Apple watch that night.I would advice international travel for happy couples. Get far away from comfort zone and common sense. Create challenges where there is none.Battle it together as a team or battle against each other as sworn enemies. Either ways we reach this happy place which is way happier than where we started out as a happy couple.
We found the bag with the next morning tied around a pole in the same spot that she was left behind.The Chandran Mahaldar common sense, good cheer and comraderie regained we headed to the Great ocean road.
We stopped at the Morington penninsular hot springs for a refreshing and a wholesome spa experience. All who call wellness mumbo jumbo should do this once. Alternate yourself from 40 degrees to 15 and if courageous you can go down to 5 degrees and splay out in a relaxation pod. Bliss
We reached the Great ocean road by a ferry as advised by a friend. Infact Manish and Kathie planned this entire Aus -2 for us in a 3 minutes phone call over FB messenger.Same Paulo Coelho ka "entire universe conspiring to get ones love" wala logic. Though this trip resulted from a tantrum I think it came from a good heart(mine).Lord Shiva contained the mighty Ganga by letting her flow through his tresses
We reached a charging station on Queenscliff. While the car charged I bought a Prine Charles & D wedding insignia glass from an antiques shop.Their marriage died. D died but a fragile glass is still around. Fragile can be strong if destined.
The Great ocean road is the Southern ocean on one side and mountains on the other roads for 243 kms built by World war 1 veterens. We drove long into our third night to no dinner and burnt pizza. The tree house overlooking the Southern ocean and Alpaca for company amidst succulents was exotic. The tree house shook,squealed,squelched and creaked every time we moved and Alpacas were not friendly enough to be petted.
A friendly Pak couple made us garam chai.
We had complementary EV charging here and 3 days and 2 nights of stress free driving ensued.The view from the tree house was whimsical. The sun rose over the sea in the morning and Clear night skies unvieled the Milky way for us.
Great ocean road lived up to its hype. Although meat pies did not. I realised pies were not my jam.The Otway tree top walk was thrilling.We climbed the tallest watch tower and yet the trees towered over us. The cantilever juts into nowhere and shakes while walking on it.Not for the faint hearted especially. We tried to click "gram" inspired couple pictures with the phone at that crazy(pun very much intended)heights. This is how much Amol loves me and can be tested only on crazy vacations.An elderly gentleman had to call for assistance and Amol was happy and I unhappy to share the buggy ride back.This is also how fickle my love is . One minute I moon and the next I groan.
Apostles were majestic and spectacular as promised. London bridge, Loch and George and the Grotto against the vibrant turquoise colours of the ocean waters are worthy of a thousand pictures. We lunched at a pub. Naturally we were more drunk than less hungry. Grilled Lobsters at Apollo Bay came to our rescue. Lobster looked like a big prawn but tasted like a crab.
Early next morning we headed to Melbourne with full car charge and a boot full of succulents.
Cockatoos are wild here and rowdy too bothering tourists. Explicit instruction in Hindi not to feed them caught our attention
We witnessed traffic jam and road rage in a foreign country. We safely reached our air BnB which had 7 pages of instructions to open the doors and clean up after ourselves.
We managed to squeeze in the sunset at St Kilda beach and had a 4 night of take away pizza for dinner.
Next day Amol set up Rules of Engagement. If we had to be congenial tourists 3 square meals , piping hot with unlimited coffee were some that were emphasized by Amol. I just gave in and we walked 16 kms in Melbourne and did the city tour without killing each other.The Victoria library
dome, the city tram ride,the Hosier street art, Banksy art collection ,Lune croissants,the St Pauls cathedral roof like the ships hull, NGV painting of the temperate rainforet detailing the smoke and horse riding surveyor, Fitzroy graden conservatory begonias, evening by the Yarra river, steak-252 days grain fed cows Tbone grilled to perfection at the steak house were some of my favorite things of that day.
Brekkie at Praharan market was a gourmet experience. Walking through fresh produce and brews is gustatory walhalla.
The Shrine of remembrance and the botanical gardens are a blurr, partly because Melbourne just dialled the temperature to 34 degrees and the previous days 16 kms had snuffed the enthusiasm out of me.
Also botanical garden called my excessive possessive love for plants which results in me walking away with small clippings of plants as theft. After an afternoon of vegetating to young sheldon I picked up some speed to st kilda againn. There was a big rush outside a corner cafe called Northern soul. Out of curiosity we ordered Irish special. We waited 34 minutes for st phillip (spud of the day aka potato) freshly cut on the same morning, coated in secret recipe - basically french fries. The wait, the cost or just the crowd I cant put my finger to it.They were the best fries I have had in 4 decades of my existence.
Also this is the best holiday till the next one.
