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Published: August 9th 2007
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Finally we meet:
The Twelve Apostles. The others are hiding somewhere... Take one car, one ocean, one road, two people, two states, several limestone rocks, beaches, kangaroos and koala's and what do you have?
The Great Ocean Road.
Well they call it that but whilst it is indeed great, and certainly is a road, only part of it is actually besides the ocean! However the fact that this bit is spectacular more than makes up for this oversight. We picked up our little hire car (which I aptly named 'Bluey' because it was blue!) and set off out of Adelaide towards Robe, a small fishing village about four hours away. Getting out of Adelaide proved to be the hardest bit...shall we just say that sometimes Australian signposts are a little too subtle! The rest of the drive was a dream...we hardly saw another car, and this continued throughout our week on the road. Even I could have driven (ahem!).
We had six days and five different overnight locations to get to Melbourne. We stayed at some amazing hostels along the way....and some not so! Our first stop at Robe will be remembered for a beautiful old cottage, chasing moths around our enormous bedroom all evening and the owners
That was a tiring walk!
Not as bad as the way back though gorgeous labroador puppy Jessie, who we would have quite happily dog-knapped!! Next up was Port Fairy, again another sleepy little fishing village. This was not such a great hostel, but an experience none-the-less. The YHA was the oldest building in town, and our room was part of the outhouse in the garden. Ours was called the 'Coachmans Room' beside us was the 'Stable', upstairs the 'Hayloft'...you get the picture! April seems to be a quite time, virtually everything was shut up for winter here, but we did manage to find ourselves in a pub which can only be compared to a cross between 'Walkabout Creek' from Crocodile Dundee and 'The Woolpack' from Emmerdale! It made for an interesting evening which was finished off by us trying to eat our soup very quietly outside our room on our 'patio' (two chairs and a table on a patch of grass) at 11.30pm...I'm sure the family in the next room thought we were quite odd!
Port Campbell was next, and a very nice motel room that seemed like a Five Star Hotel compared to the night before. Our own bathroom and a T.V and we were happy!
Then onto Apollo Bay.
London Bridge
Now this is the REAL Ocean Road! Now this is the REAL Ocean Road!Now this was an incredible hostel. It was only built a few years ago and was designed by an architect to be enviromentally friendly. It was all glass walls and stylish sofas. In fact I loved the lounge and kitchen so much I wanted to take it right back to England with me!
Last stop was Lorne. Rooms in little cabins up in the bush, with the birds singing right outside our window, A bit too loudly at 5am but nicer that the drunk American we'd suffered the evening before. We have learnt that earplugs can be very handy in hostels!
And then to the bits in between. The real reson for the trip. The Great Ocean Road. The first two days to Robe and Port Fairy were pretty non descript, as the real road doesn't actually start until Port Campbell. However we were very excited to see wild Kangaroo's on a walk around Port Fairy, even if they wouldn't pose nicely for a photo! At Port Campbell things got going. They call this bit the Limestone Coast, and the cliffs are constantly being eroded away by the waves to form caves,
Koala!
Wild ones... Watch out for falling brown stuff... arches, stacks and blowholes etc. I was instantly transported back to Mr Maddock's Geography class where I had learnt all about these things, but back then I could never have imagined how spectacular they would be. The Twelve Apostles were the most memorable, though there are actually no longer twelve...one collapsed into the sea a few years ago. Its a funny thing that the erosion creates all this amazing scenery but will also destroy it too. We were privilaged to see the Apostles at sunset and also the next morning, so we really feel we got the most of our visit there.
The only part of the journey you can truly call an ocean road was from Apollo Bay to Lorne. I personally think this should be renamed the Great Winding Road, we lost count of how many hairpins bends there were! Max drove them brilliantly, the sun shone and the backdrop was beautiful. The many beaches along our trip were gorgeous, but we particularly enjoyed Lorne, where we had a great game of the infamous sea ball and the next moning were so inspired we went for a run on it! It was a good plan, but being
Apollo Bay
Just a stop en-route. Pretty good choice! the first real exercise we
have done in over a month we were less than impressive. Max lasted two lengths before retiring hurt and I managed a paltry thirteen minutes! Still it was good fun all the same.
From Lorne we visited Erskine Falls. All the photos we had seen showed a water gushiing from a great height...but when we got there it was a mere trickle. The Erskine Drip. It was here we realised just how much of a drought they have been suffering. After walking the two hundred and nine steps down to see it, after the disappointment there seemed more like two thousand and nine steps back up!
Another highlight of this area was the wild Koala's we saw at Kennet River. They were just lounging around in the trees, being gawped at by tourists, but they are just the cutest animal in the world. Even when they poo on your head from above! It was a a real thrill to see so many of them in the wild.
And that was pretty much it. Stunning scenery, great accomodation, and a very good driver. All in all a very memorable trip down the Great
What a view!
Looking out over Apollo Bay Ocean Road. Next stop Melbourne.
What a view!
Looking out over Apollo Bay
lots of love Clare and Max xx
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