'No way Bell's is bigger than Waimea bro...'
Trip Start
Sep 16, 2008
1
28
29
Trip End
Sep 15, 2009
Torquay, Victoria, Australia
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Sebastian was convinced he had a near fatal case of man flu and had spent the last two days wrapped up in his sleeping bag groaning. At Otway he at least ventured out of the bus, still cocooned in his sleeping bag of course, but only got as far as the canteen where he set up camp on one of the sofas until we returned.
Becky was, by now, pushing my patience levels to their extreme. This is the girl that, however much we pleaded, was adamant that she would climb Uluru because she wanted to see the view and it meant nothing to her that it’s sacred Aboriginal land. Although it’s not illegal to climb Uluru the Aboriginals would rather you didn’t, but she didn’t get her chance after all as it’s so windy most of the time it’s very rarely even open. She’d been going on about how anyone remotely religious or spiritual is delusional, it seems Becky’s way is the only way. This was also the girl who’d been giving me a hard time for over a week now for how many pictures I’d been taking, though funnily enough you didn’t hear her complaining while she was uploading half of them to her laptop, well except to note that the file size was too big and she didn’t have space for them. Shame. Her crowning glory was when we were going hiking in the rain the day before and she excitedly declared that Sebastian had her respect because he’d used a black bin bag as a raincoat. Forget thousands of years of Aboriginal tradition, to win Becky’s respect you have to get a little more creative.
Consequently I kept myself to myself today, we’d be in Melbourne later and I just didn’t have the energy to pretend to like her anymore. Our final stop of the tour was Bell’s Beach, which you’ll have heard of if you’ve ever seen Point Break. Disappointingly the scenes from the movie were shot in Hawaii and look nothing like the real thing, but it’s a gorgeous beach none the less. Nearby is the town of Torquay which is the birthplace of Ripcurl. Two local surfers didn’t want jobs they just wanted to surf every day, so to make ends meet they designed some boards and wetsuits to sell, and eventually it turned into a multi million dollar international brand. The headquarters is still in Torquay (probably as they still want to be close to such a world renowned surf beach) and we spent an hour shopping in the small arcade. Then we all piled into the bus for the last time for the short drive to Melbourne.
