A GREAT Road Trip!

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Monday.
We took a trip to the supermarket (Coles) to get food for the road trip that lay ahead of us the following day to the drive the Great Ocean Road. Cheese, ham and cheese-topped rolls were on the menu for our packed lunch ready to eat on a beach somewhere, with an amazing view along on the ocean road.
It was a shop that was spurred on by a hangover from the standard Sunday night activities, whereby Chris and I will visit our local pub, The Prince of Wales where the bartender now knows to pour us a jug of VB with out even asking him, then head to Q-Bar to see Matt.
As we carry our food home we find ourselves confronted by a large queue of people outside ‘the Prince’ a bar/venue/club on Fitzroy Street St. Kilda. Intrigued, we find out what’s going on and find that MySpace.com have put on a free gig and JET are playing (who funnily enough are from Melbourne). Enthused by the thought of doing something completely spontaneous we ran home to drop off our food bags and then back to the Prince to join the back of queue, even though we were told we probably wouldn’t get in.
It turned out that we did get in and were able to enjoy a live gig in Melbourne something we’d been trying to do since we got here, when we tried to see Snow Patrol and Arctic Monkeys, both of which were sold out. They were pretty good, but we were really tired and didn’t know many of the songs, apart from the one that used to be on an advert “I want you to be my girl” (can’t remember what advert it was though). It was good though, but we had to get up very early the next day so we headed home as soon as they finished, before midnight.

Tuesday.
7:30am, my alarm of Reef - “Place your hands” begins to belt out of my phone to wake us up to take full advantage of a whole day of Great Ocean Road fun.

Showers, breakfast, cameras, bags and Lucazade - CHECK.

It was a short walk to Quality Cars where would hire our car for the road trip and after completing the necessary paper work and payment of $39 a day I was in the driver seat and we were off in our little Hyundai.

THE PLAN:
Drive all the way to the Twelve Apostles (roughly a 6 hour drive), getting there for sunset, stay in a hostel there for the night and then drive slowly back the next day stopping at various beaches and other sights.

First stop was in Geelong about 1 hour out of Melbourne where we had been told to stop in at an Information point to find out all we need to know about the Great Ocean Road.
The road itself runs right along the south coast from Torquay to Adelaide and is famous for it’s ‘twisty turny’ build and stunning coastal views.
After speaking to a very helpful old man called Alan we pack ourselves back into the car and head towards Torquay along a very straight and slightly boring road called the M1…sounds familiar! As I’m sat behind the wheel cruising in 5th gear, I begin to feel something a bit strange when I put my foot down; the car doesn’t speed up at all, it sounded like it was really struggling and began to decrease in speed. I thought this a bit bizarre, but we carried on anyway, only to have a guy drive along next to me and tell me that we have smoke pouring from the back of the car. Obviously I pull over straight away to see smoke escaping from under the bonnet, and a lovely burning smell. We all un-fold ourselves from the car and stare blankly at the smoking engine, each of us with absolutely no car knowledge what so ever. Chris then phones his dad, 1am UK time, and explains the scenario. From the information Chris told him it became clear once Mr. Golden had considered the evidence that we had a burnt-out clutch, great. We were, as you can imagine, really happy about this and the fact that we’d now have to drive the rest of the way to Torquay in 3rd gear and at a speedy 60km/hr, smiles all round?!
We eventually arrive in Torquay in at an Information point in a retail park full of surf shops where I then phoned ‘Quality car rentals’ and see what he could suggest.
We were given two options..

1. He would drive to Torquay, pick us up and take us back to St. Kilda where he would then get us a new car and we could set off again.
2. He would get someone else to drive another car with him and give us the new car so we could carry on as we were.

Option 2. was by far the best… but life isn’t that simple. He couldn’t get anyone to drive with him for another 2/3 hours, taking us to 2pm before he even set off to meet us 2 hours from St. Kilda. So, after some swearing and cursing among ourselves (not at each other, just in general), we go with option 1.
We take advantage of the spare time and walk around the surf shop retail park, maybe for some retail therapy? I did get some retail therapy by buying a nice Rip Curl cowboy style shirt for a mere $20 at less then trade price.
We waited at the car for the man to come and get us, not looking forward to sitting in a car all the way back to St. Kilda with the man. 1pm and the sandwiches we had prepared to eat at a beach view were now in our stomachs.
He eventually arrived at nearly 2pm and we all slept our way back to St. Kilda after some, as I was sat in the front, annoying small talk.

3:45pm we’re back at Quality Car rentals and after a quick car change, I was once again behind the wheel of a very new Holden (Vauxhall) and driving towards Torquay. With some good tunes we tried to revive the, now very stunted, enthusiasm for the road trip.
With all the excitement of a car with a burnt out clutch (how we love you!) we had to change our plan. Sunset at the Twelve Apostles was now a distant dream as it would be pitch black by the time we got there, as the sun would set at about 4:30pm.
We decided to drive as far as we could until about 6pm and then stop wherever we ended up at that time.

The sun began to set as we began our drive along the Great Ocean Road. The first stop we made was at Bell’s Beach, the first beach on the road. Bell’s Beach is where the film ‘Point Break’ with Keanu Reeves was supposedly set, when in fact it was filmed in California somewhere. Even as the sun was setting the water was busy with surfers catching some very nice waves, and people running down the beachfront surf board under arm and wetsuit zipped up, pretty cool place. It looked really nice at that time of night.
Our next stop as we zoomed along the road, before the sun was completely gone, was Airlie’s inlet, a lighthouse, but not just any lighthouse; this was the lighthouse where the old children’s TV programme ‘Round the Twist’ was filmed. We were quite lucky in the end; the views and pictures of it were beautiful as the sun slowly began to disappear completely behind the headland. I jumped behind the wheel of ‘Sunset’ our recently named Holden and drove further along the Ocean road noticing some stunning views of beaches and rocky coast line even in the dark towards a little town called Lorne where we decided we would stay for the night. We noticed a little sign for a YHA hostel and parked in the driveway and checked in. It was quite a nice hostel set back from the beachfront in amongst the trees. Fish & Chips was for tea and then falling asleep in the TV room we headed to bed at a very early 10:30pm after a very eventful day. I was determined to see the sunrise so my alarm was set at 6:30am.

My alarm sounded after a good sleep and Chris and I clothed and hopped into the car, leaving Matt to sleep his way through the sunrise. We were now on the hunt for a good spot to drive to where we’d get the desired beautiful views. I drove to the western end of Lorne beach, but found a view obstructed by cranes, so then drove quite a way east along the ocean road to a nice long beach we’d managed to see in the dark the last night. I pulled in and right away set up the video camera for some time lapse footage of the sun rising. As the sun began to ascend over the eastern hills of the headland it was a case of running around the beach to get the best pictures.
After a media frenzy of ‘sunrise capturing’ we jumped back into the car and back to Lorne. The views were awesome, as the sun cast a gorgeous orangey glow over everything. We found a nice little bakery for breakfast.

Chris took the wheel as we began our journey west on the long road towards our goal - the Twelve Apostles. Along the way we tried to get to see another lighthouse, off the main road, only to find it was privately owned and a payment was required for entry, so we missed that one out. It wasn’t a wasted trip though as on the drive back, now with Matt driving, to the ocean road we noticed, on an overhanging tree branch, a little Koala holding on for dear life as he was being blown around the strong winds. A wild Koala is a very difficult thing to see, but this one was in full display, so cool! Matt climbed the tree a little bit to get the photo.
We carried on along the Ocean road admiring the outstanding beauty around every corner, each one producing another stunning coastal view. Next stop was Apollo bay, formally known as paradise bay, where we grabbed a bite to eat and another bottle of Lucazade for me, as well as some quality ‘Black&Gold’ choc chip muesli bars.

It was now a ‘twisty turny’ journey right to the Twelve Apostles. On our approach the Cliffside views and landscape was seriously impressive. Walking through a little display centre we were blown out onto a very windy wooden walkway to a couple of viewpoints, both of which had simply amazing views of the naturally formed rock stacks. The forces of nature gradually eroded the softer limestone, forming caves in the cliffs, which became arches and when they collapsed, rock islands as high as 45metres were left isolated from the shore = Incredible views!!
Once we had taken ample amounts of film and photo’s we piled back into the car and Matt drove us, singing, all the way back along the Great Ocean Road until near Torquay where, in the dark, I took over to get us safely back to St. Kilda.

Apart from the upset the day before it was all in all a brilliant road trip and the unfortunate events of the wonderful ‘burnt out clutch car’ only made it all the more memorable.

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Photos

JET
#I want you to be my girl#

Bell's Beach
supposed home of the film 'Point Break'

Comments

[BIG COL]

Mint!
Mint! Looks awesome. Fills me with joy sat at a desk in an office looking at excessive holidaying!