The Great Ocean Road

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Everyone talked about it and said it was not to be missed so we dug deep and forked out $165 for a 2 day, 1 night tour of the Great Ocean Road.
The first stop was at Tower Hill, a nature park where we were assured we would see emus and koalas and if we were lucky, some kangaroos. Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad - the elusive kangaroo not wishing to make an appearance for us that day. We then drove on through the Bay of Islands and the Bay of Martyrs, with breathtaking views of the ocean and the 12 Apostles rock formations, until we reached our hostel at the small and lovely Port Campbell.
Now, when we set out on our journey, there was a fair old mixed bunch of us from 4 corners of the world but there was a distinct clique of a group of young canadians and ourselves, which became more pronounced as our north american friends became increasingly lairy as the shandies went down. As the night wore on in our hostel, it was fair to say that Team Canada all but alienated the rest of the party with their drunken antics . . "they'll be regretting it in the morning" us wise owls ruminated. And then some! As we left the hostel for our next leg of the road, there were a few redfaced, quiet canadians, who, to the delight of the rest of the group who had been kept awake by their shenanigans, appeared to have experienced some inhouse fighting, with one of the male species distancing himself from the rest of the pack, whilst a couple of the females appeared to be bullying the 3rd, less robust female. Nature, eh?
Anyway, back to the road. Forgot to mention that after a lovely BBQ at the hostel, we headed back out to the 12 Apostles to watch sunset and hopefully catch some penguins coming up the beach. Yep, just like Kangaroo Island when spent a couple hours freezing to death without catching the merest glimpse of one.
We started out early the next day and first stop was London Bridge (part of which had collapsed some years before)and then on to Lochard Gorge. Geen then took the opportunity to do a ten minute helicopter ride and got some more magnificent photos of the road from the sky, before we headed to Apollo Bay, a gorgeous little seaside town for lunch.
Driving through Torquay and Geelong (second largest town in SA Australia after Melbourne apparently) our final destination was Bells Beach, eagerly anticipated as we had all seen the film Point Break which had been filmed there . . . or so we thought! Apparently, for reasons of cost, the filming did not actually take place here at all but back in the US! What a swizz! Having said this, Bells Beach was a bit disappointing in that it certainly wasn't the prettiest beach we have been on, although that might have something to do with the weather, as it then startled to drizzle. At which point, donning headphones and taking our shoes off, we settled back into our seats for the long drive back to Melbourne.

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