The Great Ocean Road
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2008
1
28
62
Trip End
Mar 19, 2009
Warrnambool,
Victoria,
Australia
Sunday, December 21, 2008
We started out in Flinders and drove to Sorrento to catch the car ferry to Queenscliffe, the ferry allowed us to avoid driving back through Melbourne, and allowed us to see TV footage of someone throwing a shoe at George W Bush.
We headed towards Lorne, stopping at Torquay to visit the surf shops. Quicksilver and Rip-curl was founded here, (as was the wet-suit) so there were huge outlet stores to attract wannabe surfers like us! We still managed to leave empty handed though - they cost a bit more than the Thailand fakes! Bells beach was around here too - a big surfing beach featured in the film Point Break - but we couldn't hold out for lunch so stopped somewhere closer instead
"no fear" Scholefield
!We stayed in Lorne at the YHA backpackers for $65, wow, a bit of a change from SE Asia. The place was nice but we did find a few bugs in the bed sheets in the morning, not so different from SE Asia! Lorne was a nice, quiet seaside town with the best burgers ever.
The following day we drove around the breathtaking Ocean Road to Apollo Bay. The scenery was so pretty it was a challenge to keep my eyes on the road. We found a slightly cheaper backpackers that put us in a small self contained house, very homely, relaxing and strangely retro. We stayed for two days cooking most of our meals and chatting to our short-term house mates as they travelled through the town. We went inland for a day and up into the jungle to the Ottway national park. We walked through the dense jungle, saw a waterfall and treated ourselves to the 'fly way' - the longest canopy walkway in Australia; at 40 metres high we were both very brave to get to the end! There was surprising little nature to see from the top but the dinousaur models hidden around the jungle made up for that.
On the way to Port Campbell the following day we spotted heaps of koalas up in the gum trees so took lots of photos and cooed for a while - debating on the best way to lure one into our backpack
a 'Raptor-off'
. The 12 apostles, thunder cave and the gorge are all stunning natural coastal formations which made the journey to Port Cambell even more special. Here we stayed at a really sweet little guest house where the owner, Mark, treated us to a meal and lots of wine with his two friends, son Darcy and dog Gia. They were all very hospitable and the tipsy sailing yarns made us all giggle. However we weren't allowed to leave the following day until we promised to be Western Bulldogs fans - some Aussie rules team apparently!We extended our trip to Warrnambool to catch up with two good friends. Will (from Ledbury) and his girlfriend Liz (from Warrnambool - and Ledbury recently) are both living back out here in Australia. It was so good to catch up with them for a beer that we jumped at the offer of a barbie and an extra stop over at Liz's family farm; we didn't realise then that the Pom was doing the barbie but in the end we were pleasantly surprised, thanks Will! We had a lovely evening catching up, spotting emu's, playing cricket, reminding Will what he got up to at our wedding and meeting Liz's lovely large family.
In the morning Will and Liz took us on a quad bike tour of the huge farm and to meet all of the cows and the milking station. We said good bye and headed off on the much quicker inland highway to Melbourne. We plan to meet up with them both for New Year and possibly to see the cricket on boxing day.
Comments
Christmas Fairy
Hi
I'm on the top of the HQ Christmas tree this year. I am missing you both very much but I'm missing Billie Piper even more. Have wonderful time travelling
Love Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Who?)
Christmas Fairy
Hi
I'm on the top of the HQ Christmas tree this year. I am missing you both very much but I'm missing Billie Piper even more. Have wonderful time travelling
Love Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Who?)