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Published: August 7th 2007
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London Bridge
The arch was attached to the mainland but it collapsed a few years ago- and two people were on it! The Great Ocean Road is a well known tourist attraction along the South Coast not far from Melbourne. It is a road that runs for about 4 hours along the south coast looking out over the ocean and it has a lot of scenic places/ natural beauty spots and is mainly national park.
We had been planning the trip for the last couple of weeks and had put a notice up in the hostel asking for people to come along so that we could save money on our rental car. We managed to get two girls, although one of them pulled out about an hour before we were supposed to set off which was well out of order. Anyway we picked up the car about half 10 (half an hour late cos Tim lost his trainers amonst other things). We set off very cautiously because we hadn't driven in a city in Australia before; Melbourne has some weird traffic rules as well such as, if you want to turn right, you must go to the left lane and then wait for the lights to change to red before quickly nipping across before the other cars come (its called a Melbourne Hook
Geelong Lifeguards
Just in case we fell into the sea, these hunks were on the job. Geelong Lifeguards
Just in case we fell into the sea, these hunks were on the job.Turn apparently). Anyway we eventually got out of the city and on our way and headed south towards a town called Geelong. Soon after we set off we realised the CD player wasn't working which was annoying because I had spent ages the night before burning some CDs for the trip. In Geelong we walked around teh dock and it was sunny for the first time in 3 months; made a nice change, we took soem photos with the random people statues carved from wood that were everywhere and got a McDonalds. i got on the blower to the rental company to tell them about the CD player. They said they had an outlet in Geelong and they would swap the car for us... result. When we found the place, unfortunately they didn't have any more of the small cars that we paid for so we had to get upgraded to a 2 litre beast, although it was automatic.
We got going and the plan was to head inland from Geelong to the far end of the Great Ocean Road and then come back along
Random Lookout
Some inland lookout spot surrounded by vineyards the road on the second day. We went through and stopped at all the brown
Random Lookout
Some inland lookout spot surrounded by vineyardssigned stuff which meant touristy... we ended up at some random lookout points and nature reserves along the way. It looked a lot like Atherton, where we spent Christmas although not as warm- in fact it was exactly the same as the countyside around home. We found another Botanical Gardens like the one in Melbourne although this one was better because you could drive around it instead of walking! We had a little go on the playground roundabout, tried to catch some falling leaves then left (after we all got one).
We arrived at a place called Warnambool, which is the far end of the road and checked into a hostel that was pretty empty but very homely,; it had a front room and carpets and was very clean.
We rushed to the sea front about 2 mins drive for the sunset but it was too cloudy so we just went back to the hostel with a bottle of rum and played drinking pictionary.
In the morning we set off to drive the road although in
Cheese World
Just as good as it sounds hindsight we left it a bit late, We left at half 10 and made our way out. We stopped at a 'Whale Nursey'
Cheese World
Just as good as it soundsto try and spot some hump back whales, it was the season but I think you have to be patient, we gave up after about 10 minutes because it was a bit nippy. It was weird to think that the ocean we were looking out on went all the way out until Antarctica- the next bit of land. We stopped off at a Cheese Factory called 'Cheese World', obviously hoping for the free samples and it paid off a treat. By the time we got to the coast and the Great Ocean Road it was about 12. We stopped off at scenic spots that were almost every few miles and got out to have a look. One of the first that we stopped at was called 'The Grotto' which had a big (ish) rock pool in it. We were about to leave when Tim suggested that we should go for a swim. The water was almost freezing cold and we only had shreddies with us but we decided to anyway.
The Grotto
The pool behind is where we went for a little dip It was the coldest water I've ever felt but felt refreshing afterwards, if not slightly shrivelled!!
We kept going and stopping at every place along the road which I got
The Grotto
The pool behind is where we went for a little diploads of pictures of. It was really good, the landscape was exactly the same as cornwall/ yorkshire moors and the temperature was about the same. The sights are all formed from limestone (or sandstone) and so they erode really quickly; we saw pictures of the places 10 years ago and they looked completely different. A lot of the places had beaches but you couldn't go on them because the cliffs were unstable or they were penguin shelters. I didn't know penguins went on beaches but apparently they come in every night.
We saw the main tourist sight called 'the 12 Apostles' which are quite famous- they are old parts of the cliff that are stuck out in the sea. There are only about 8 left now because they keep falling over... we were praying one would fall but unfortunately they didn't.
By the time we stopped for tea it was nearly dark and we had only done half
Caves on Beach
This beach had caves around it with all the Stalactites and shizzle... we had our socks and shoes off but the sand was freezing the road so i had to drive in the dark for the last few hours. We didn't miss too much; the road were very very windy- often getting down to 20 mph. We stopped at the lighthouse that features in the credits
Caves on Beach
This beach had caves around it with all the Stalactites and shizzle... we had our socks and shoes off but the sand was freezingof the show 'Around the Twist' and eventually got back to Melbourne around half 8.
It was a great two days and was nice to get out of the city. It wasn't so nice getting up at 9am to take the car back but someone had to so it!
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