Great Ocean Roadtrip!

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From Melbourne we hired a car to go down the great ocean road and up the grampians before heading back to Melbourne. The bright spark at the rental place didnt think about it being a little bit illegal to drive an 8 seater if you are under 25! fortunately there only ended up being 5 of us. so after telling him "no a 3 door hatchback wont be big enough for 5 people plus backpacks!" we ended up with this monster of a mitsubishi! it was no looker but it had a 3.5litre V6 unber the bonnet so i wasnt compaining! thanks to the women in the vehicle the first thing i did was drive to the neighbours set, which to me just looked like any other cul-de-sac in the suburbs and its not even called ramsey street!! oh well something to tick off the list! Fortunately my return part of the bargain was getting to drive around Albert park 😊 the track for the F1 Australian Grand Prix!! so i was a happy boy in my V6!!

Next we started the roadtrip proper. i drove down to Torquay, the home of Quiksilver and billabong, at the start of the great ocean road. we had booked a night in Apollo bay so i followed the great ocean road down, stopping in various places. The views were breath taking and the coastal roads were easily the best i have ever driven - so much fun! winding roads, rock face to the right, the sea and a shear drop to the left, what more could you ask for?!

Staying in apollo bay was like stepping back in time, the hostel was a really country style hostel, with wooden outbuilding and possibly the oldest colour tv in the world! but it meant we could sit and watch the tennis with lovely fresh locally caught fish and chips, so hay! the next day we stopped at the 12 aposels, london bridge and various other landmarks along the coast before heading up to the grampians. We were lucky that the clouds and rain cleared just as we walked up to 12 aposels look out, hence half the pics are overcast and half are glorious sunshine! they are rock stacks that run along the coast were the sea has worn the rock away behind them. at some places along the coast the sea was so rough that the waves crashing against the cliffs were sending foam a good hundred feet up to us in the wind.

The next 2 night we stayed at "Tim's Place" in the Grampians. was really nice up there, shame couldnt have stayed longer. so much nicer staying in smaller hostels in the country. There were Kangaroos, wallabies and cockatoos all over the place! drove around the various sights up there, includng mckenzie falls which werent huge but impressive all the same. More great roads up in the forrest cover hills too! nice BBQ in the evening-yum! headed back to melbourne in the morning for more tennis!

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eyes are going a bit funny and minds a bit numb so apologies if the writing isnt very imaginative!

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