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Published: November 23rd 2005
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- FOOD: Big meat pie with ketchup - VERY good; drink in nice St Kilda bar.
- AREA: Great Ocean Road - Bell's Beach (the best surf), Anglesea (kangaroos eating the golf course), very pretty town of Lorne, koalas, ruined rainforest with very tall trees, colourful parrots, helicopter ride over the magnificent Twelve Apostles; Loch Ard Gorge with it's colourful rock and stalagtites.
- PEOPLE: Jimmy the tour guide - such an old Oz boy! Whinging American girl who slept nearly all the way.
- WEATHER: The sun managed to just about shine for us.
Thur 25th Aug: An early start to whizz down the Great Ocean Road and back all in one day. Certainly not the best way to do it but the only way with my lack of time! Our guide was called Jimmy and was a real old Aus boy - mullet, big tash and the craziest driver - no seatbelt, speaking on his mobile while driving, stalled the van, sped around corners and nearly crashed! But he was very knowledgeable as he's lived along the road all his life and he kept us all in line on this tight scheduled day by
barking orders at us like an army officer!
After an hour and a half of freeway we made our first stop at Bell's Beach (all 5 minutes worth of stop). This is Australia's best surfing beach and I can see why - huge amounts of surf.
At Anglesea we headed to the golf course where we saw some kangaroos munching away on this great tasting grass. My first sighting of kangaroos - I was so excited! There was about 5 of them and to top the moment, one of them had a Joey in her pouch - ahhh, cute one.
Some kanga facts: they can run up to a speed of 80k and jump up to 3m. The really fascinating fact about them is that they can put off the growth of foetus' if there is no food available, and so can give birth anytime they want really!
We stopped at Urqharts Bluff Beach and then the official beginning of the Great Ocean Road began - just past Aireys Inlet.
It took 16 years to build the road and was completed in 1932. 3,000 ex soldiers built it so unofficially, it's a war memorial for WWI.
We passed
through Lorne which is a very pretty town with a gorgeous stretch of beach in front and forest behind. As the town can no longer grow in size but as it is such a pretty place for a holiday, the house prices have boomed which is a shame as locals whose families have lived there for generations can no longer afford the prices and are getting pushed out by the rich.
We then stopped to see another highlight for me - koalas clinging onto the eucalyptus trees. They are so big and cuddly looking and yet again, my luck was in as one was holding onto a baby.
We went for a very short trek in the rainforest at the most Southern tip - sadly not much left of it as the Brits caused destruction and cut loads down. There are incredibly tall trees in the bit that is left though - up to 300m high. We had neckache after coming out of the rainforest but forgot our pains when we saw all the parrots. They were such bright colours - red, blue, green and Jimmy gave us some seeds to feed them. There were many and they came and
sat on us to feed (very fussy eaters - only wanted the pumpkin seeds).
We then drove up more of the spectacular coastline which was very rocky and has been the cause of many a shipwreck, stopping along the way at a beach to have our lunch - a big meat pie with ketchup (Jimmy's recommendation and the best yet).
At reaching the Twelve Apostles, Sarah and Robert who'd I been hanging out with decided to take the helicopter ride over it. I went with them as it was the cheapest I'd seen and I've never been up in a helicopter before. Very exciting and weird talking to each other through the headsets. The Apostles are huge limestone pillars that have formed as the cliff face erodes 2cm a year. The 12 are now only 8 as 4 have fallen down as the sea has worn the stone away. The latest fell very recently but there are no remains of it. They are stunning and definitely worth the helicopter ride to see them from above. They looked good at ground level too but not you can't see their full glory from the ground. Although the helicopter ride was so
quick - it seemed to be over in 10 seconds but actually lasted about 10 minutes.
The American girl who'd been sleeping for practically the whole journey and moaning for the rest decided to grace us with her presence at this point. Why come on a day trip if all you're going to do is sleep? Not quite sure what she expected out of a trip along a coastal road - it speaks for itself really. I wonder if she still would've booked if the Twelve Apostles were still called by their original name of 'Sow and Piglets'!!
Very close to the Twelve Apostles is the Loch Ard Gorge at Port Campbell where a shipwreck in 1878 left only 2 survivors, an Irish brother and his sister who he bravely rescued. There were lots of hypnotising waves to watch here and the cliff is gorgeous with many colourful stalagtites.
This was the end of our trip so we took the freeway for the 3 hour drive back and then Robert and I joined Sarah for a drink at a nice bar in St Kilda's.
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