The Great Ocean Road

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The Great Ocean Road was built between 1919 and 1932, it was built with the idea of constructing a road of great beauty. It was built as a memorial to the soldiers who had died in World War 1 and as an employnent scheme for those returning with the help of the unemployed during the depression.

Well I was really looking forward to this part of our travels and we had allowed 2/3 days for the journey from Melbourne to Adelaide. On day one we had planned to reach Port Fairy for the nights stop, but instead only mangaged to reach Port Campbell which was not a great distance form Melbourne. I must take the responsibility for this, along with the Australian Highways Department, mine was for wanting to stop and visit every lookout point on route, theirs for all the hold ups and road works. John has actually renamed the road as "The Great Ocean Roadworks".

Having stoppped at Apollo bay for fish and chips we reached Port Campbell late afternoon and decided to stay, which in fact turned into a real bonus. We booked into a motel where our veranda overlooked the small bay, dumped the suitcases again and out onto the town, which was just up and down the road, to look for somewhere to eat that evening, The guide book said there were plenty of places to eat but most of these were closed,so we adapted and improvised, off to the supermarket (well village store) where we bought a tin of beans, a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine ( who thought I couldn't rough it ). This turned out to be a really lovely evening, eating beans on toast with a splendid view over the bay, it has already become a memory we talk about,

Close to Port Campbell are the famous Twelve Apostles ( rock formations which sit out to sea beyond rugged cliffs) these are truly awesome, I think I will adopt that Aussie word, the whole coast in that area is absolutely stunning, but I think the best way to appreciate it would entail a helicopter ride.
The following day we set off stopping at the bay of islands and ending our journey on the Great Ocean Road at Warrambool, we decided to carry on up the coast but this became the Princes Highway to Robe where we stopped for the night. Robe like most other coastal towns was small but nice, infact I quite liked the town untill I overheard a lady talking about her cat and a snake, on top of this the motel we had booked into was not one of our best choices, so poor John had a very Moody Shirley that night.

We were up early the next day for our travels into Adelaide but I will let John write the blog for that.

Thoughts on the Great Ocean Road----Very Scenic although it was difficult for John to appreciate whilst drivng.
I think it is alittle over hyped.
The drive from Melbourne to Adelaide longer than we imagined( not enough
research done).


Whilst walking to one of the lookout on the Great Ocean Road I saw my first lizard (it was a little bigger than the mediteranean variety). John wondered what I was doing because I had to alter my walking step to miss it and it looked as though I was breaking into a dance, infact so did the other people that were around me because the so called lizard had scarpered.

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Photos

Twelve Apostles
Well, a few of them

Comments

[Marl]

lovelyPhotos
Pics are great think Loch Ard is my favorite so far, And fancy going all the way to Australia for beans on toast lolxx