Boston College Athletics
Journal 7 - Great Ocean Road 3rd Match
January 31, 2005 | Lacrosse
January 6, 2005
It was an early morning start; we loaded the bus by 6:00 am and started our journey to the Great Ocean Road. Although many of the girls slept through parts the drive, we all awoke to take pictures of the kangaroos sleeping on the golf course, and koala bears resting in the trees. The drive was very scenic to say the least. The Great Ocean Road was a windy drive in which our bus was going both up and downhill; hugging the side of the mountain. From our cliff-view we experienced a breathtaking view of the sun rising over the Tasman Sea. We stopped several times to take pictures of the spectacular view. We finally arrived at the beach in Apollo Bay about three hours later. Although there were scattered rains, more than half of our team got suited up in wetsuits and with a surfboard in hand followed our instructors down to the ocean. We spent 30 minutes on shore and a good hour in the water getting first hand experience. It was deceptively tiring, but in the end rewarding as almost everyone was able to get up and ride a wave to shore. After this little taste of Australian athletic life we wandered into town for a midday lunch before our 3 hour drive back to the hotel. About 10 minutes down the road, our tour guide took us to another magnificent view atop a mountain. We could see the entire town below us as well as neighboring towns and harbors. We were so high up that we could even see the curve of the Earth off in the horizon. With 23 girls in shopping withdrawal, a stop at the outlets in Torquay was a must. After hitting up the surf shops for a good hour and half, we resumed our long bus ride back to Melbourne, during which most of the team rested up for our big game against a Japanese representative team. Putting our fatigue aside, we focused our energy on beating Japan - we were a success! We defeated the Japanese team, who put up a great fight, although their aggressiveness was nothing compared to our unwavering BC spirit. And, once again, we showed significant improvement over the previous day's performance. After quickly socializing with the Japanese team we headed out for a quick team dinner before retiring to our rooms. Needless to say, after such a fun-filled and eventful day we fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow.
-- Brittany Barry (`07) & Allie Lloyd (`07)
