Great Ocean Road
Trip Start
Jun 07, 2008
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83
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Trip End
Apr 05, 2009
Princetown, Victoria, Australia
Monday, January 5, 2009
The Great Ocean Road (GOR) is famous as one of the world's most beautiful coastal drives, and for a good reason (see our pictures). We drove west to east, not far after Warrnambool we entered the Port Campbell National Park, which is said to be the most photographed stretch of the GOR, with its sheer limestone cliffs towering over fierce seas. There are many interesting sites in the park, the "12 Apostles" is the most visited, but we found the "Loch Ard Gorge" nicer. We spent most of the 1st day in the GOR and decided to stop at Princetown for the night, the small caravan park there turned out to be one of the nicest we've been to, super friendly staff and an amazing view (no laundry facilities though).
London Bridge
We started the next day by visiting the lighthouse at Cape Otway (the oldest lighthouse in Australia) and the Great Otway National Park, where we saw many koalas in their natural habitat, they are very funny and sleepy creatures (they sleep 20 hours a day!). From there we continued along the GOR through Apollo Bay, and Lorne, to Anglesea where we decided to spend the night. We almost regreted that decision because the seaside caravan park was packed, expensive, and generally a mess (compared to other parks we stayed at so far). We woke up the next morning only to find out that it was pissing down and our laundry on the lines that we washed the night before was soaked. The same thing happened to half of the people in the park, so everybody was trying to get to the dryers, not an easy task, again, it was just a big mess. Then we drove to Melbourne, the weather was crap and it rained quite a bit, so we couldn't really enjoy the last 11km of GOR, between Anglesea and Torquay.
PT:
A Great Ocean Road é famosa por ser uma das estradas costeiras mais belas do Mundo, e é fácil perceber porquê, vejam as nossas fotos. Percorremos a GOR no sentido Oeste-Este, um pouco depois de passarmos Warrnambool entrámos no Parque Nacional de Port Campbell, que dizem ser a parte mais fotografada da GOR. No parque há bastantes sítios interessantes, os "12 Apóstolos" é o sítio mais visitado, mas nós achámos o "Loch Ard Gorge" mais interessante. Passámos a maior parte do dia na GOR e decidimos passar a noite na pequena vila de Princetown, o modesto parque de caravanas ai existente revelou-se ser um dos mais agradáveis onde já ficámos, os donos eram super simpáticos e a vista excelente.
Loch Ard Gorge
No dia seguinte começámos por visitar o farol no Cabo Otway (o mais antigo da Austrália) e o Parque Nacional Great Otway, onde vimos bastantes coalas no seu habitat natural, são uns animais bastante engraçados e sonolentos (dormem 20 horas por dia!). Dai continuámos a seguir a GOR, passando por Apollo Bay e Lorne, até Anglesea onde decidimos passar a noite. Rapidamente nos arrependemos dessa decisão, pois o parque de caravanas estava apinhado, pouco asseado, e era caro. Na manhã seguinte o tempo estava de chuva, e a roupa que tinhamos deixado no estendal estava encharcada, o mesmo aconteceu a muito mais gente, pelo que havia fila para as máquinas de secar da lavandaria do parque, não foi fácil. Depois de finalmente conseguirmos secar a roupa, arrancámos para Melbourne, continuou a chover a maior parte do dia pelo que não pudemos disfrutar decentemente os últimos 11km da GOR entre Anglesea e Torquay.
CZ:
Silnice Great Ocean Road (GOR) se ve svete proslavila (rozhodne zaslouzene, viz fotky) jako jedna z nejkrasnejsich pobreznich cest. Jeli jsme od zapadu k vychodu a za mesteckem Warnambool jsme narazili na NP Port Cambell National Park, o kterem se rika, ze je vubec nejvice fotografovanym kouskem GOR. U pobrezi se tyci spousta vapencovych skalisek ruznych velikosti a tvaru, nejslavnejsi formaci je 12 Apostolu, ale nam se libila take (mozna i vic) "Loch Ard Gorge" a vsechny ostatni kreace prirody. Stravili jsme tu skoro cely den a na noc jsme se usadili v malem parku v Princetownu, jeden z tech hezcich, recepcni byl vazne typek a vyhled jsme meli taky pekny (jedinym zadrhelem byla neexistujici pracka, takze jsme si nemohli vyprat, coz jsme uz nutne potrebovali).
Sleepy koalas at the Great Otway NP
Rano jsme navstivili majak na vybezku Cape Otway, je to nejstarsi majak v Australii, a potom NP Great Otway National Park, kde zije spousta legracnich koal, vsechny sedely na vetvi eukalyptu a spaly. Odtud jsme pokracovali po GOR pres Apollo Bay a Lorne do Anglesea, kde jsme se rozhodli prespat. Byl to jednoznacne jeden z nejhorsich parku, nacpany k prasknuti (plaz byla hned za plotem), doslova hlava na hlave, vsude litaly hromady deti na ruznych dopravnich prostredcich, a obecne to byl jeden velkej bordel, prislusensstvi absolutne nestihaly a navic to byl zatim nejdrazsi park, ve kterem jsme prespali. Druhy den rano jsme se probudili, abychom zjistili, ze leje jak z konve, a pres noc nam zmoklo vsechno pradlo, co jsme si vecer vyprali. To same se prihodilo asi polovine lidi v parku, takze zacal nelitostny boj o susicky. Asi po hodine intrikovani se nam podarilo jednu ukoristit, tak jsme tam pradlo hodili a asi za hodku uz jsme frceli dal. Celou cestu az do Melbourne prselo, tak jsme se uz ani nikde nestavovali a do Melbourne dorazili uz odpoledne.
