Submitted by Sonthia Manolakos on the 2024 Winter ENGL program in Australia…
A thirteen hour bus ride seems like it wouldn’t be that enjoyable. However, the Great Ocean Road tour that my group took the first week of our trip, was quite the opposite. We started the drive to various parks along the route until we reached the first beach on our trek. The beaches along the Great Ocean Road are widely different from the East Coast beaches my friends and I are used to. Cliffs hold the beach in an encasement that spans the whole coast line. Algae and grassy moss hang from parts of the cliffs and become a beautiful little ecosystem in itself. Bugs were somewhat of a complaint amongst the group, as they also don’t parallel our east Coast comforts and land on you without remorse. However, the clouds didn’t take away from the awe we experienced from the beaches and the small towns that were built around them. (Submitted on January 10, 2024)