My alarm went off nice and early for my day tour on the great ocean road. I knew it was going to be a long day, but this is a must do when in Melbourne. It would have been nice to do an over night trip, but I'm running out of time. Me an Corey that was in the room were both doing the same tours but with different companies, we saw each other a number of times during the day at different sight seeing spots. My bus picked me up early and we left the hostel at 7, drove around St. Kilda picking up some other people before heading into the city to collect the rest from the main office. Our driver was called Brad. We waited for everyone to arrive and headed out if the city. We had about a 2 hour drive before our first stop at Bells Beach. It's a famous beach they do the rip curl surf competitions. Took a walk around, and enjoyed the views, thank god the sun was out, and the weather looked to be promising! From here we drove to the memorial arch of the great ocean road. Which is at the eastern end of the GOR. (It going to take me ages to write this if I do great ocean road all the time, so I'm shorten it to GOR!). Getting back in the Minibus we continued our journey.
This is going to sound really sad but as we were driving through either Anglesea or Lorne I can't remember which. There was a light house called Spilt Point, Brad went on to tell us it was used in a TV programme back in the 90's.... This was all he needed to say "ROUND THE TWIST!!". Wow, I uses to love this kids programme... I managed to get some pictures as we were driving past... Then I started to sing to myself...

"Have you ever.. Ever felt like this.. Had strange things happen... Are you going around the twist!"

I'm hoping when a few of you read this, your going to get the theme tune stuck in your head and be singing it all day like I was! Our driver stopped at a number of view points on the GOR so we could take pictures of the cliff lined shores, at one point there was an impressive rainbow linking the sea with the main land... I must have taken about 15 pictures of that rainbow! We arrived at Kennett River, the location we hoped to see wild koalas! Koala is an old aboriginal word for "No drink" as Koala's don't actually drink water, they get everything from the eucalyptus tree. They why they are so lazy and sleep 20 hours a day. I guess we would be the same if all we ate was lettuce. I saw a koala but you of course he was fast asleep. Walking back to the minibus there were hundreds of parrots. I could see people feeding them. Sadly I had no food, but I decided to cheat. Pretending I had food and cupped my hands and raised them away from my body... I then had 2 parrots on my arms taking a look to see what I had in my hands. I know I was teasing them. I managed to get some sunflower seed from one of the other drivers. Divided the food between my hands then returned to the Jesus position. You should have seen my face, I had 6 or 7 birds flying towards me, the first coupe landed and I started to brick it. I think I had 6 in total at one point. One even landed on my head and started to scratch at my scalp. I flapped my arms a bit and shook my head so they got off. I had dropped most of my food, so I had loads of parrots around my feet. Most if the girls on my tour screamed as soon as the parrots came close. Lol. I think the parrots out did the koala, a lot more entertaining!

Continuing west along the GOR we arrived at the Lunch stop in Apollo Bay, a small town located near the beach. Had chicken salad and chips. It was pretty good, as I hadn't eaten anything since cereal this morning. Once finished took a walk around the town until moving into the next stop. Otway's Rainforest also known as Mait's Rest. This is where Brad took us on a guided rainforest walk through this ancient and freezing cold rainforest. It was so cold, and the only place all day it actually rained. Within this area of rainforest was the worlds largest tree.. I say was as some bright spark decided to cut it down to measure it. We only have a couple of stops left in our fun filled day on the GOR. The last area was called the shipwreck coast line as over 300 boats have ended their lives here. We got back on the minibus and headed to the 12 Apostles it was about another hour away. There is a lot of driving on this tour, as we will have covered over 600km today.

The 12 Apostles are limestone stacks, not sure how they got their name as there is only 8. Before walking down to the view point, I took up the opportunity to go in a helicopter ride over this part of coast line. I love flying, I can even jump out of an aircraft at 14,000ft. But when it came to going up in a helicopter I was actually bricking my self... I just don't get how they stay in the air. I was lucky enough to get the front seat next to the pilot. I upgrades and got the ticket that included a USB of the journey. It seemed really windy but the helicopter just lifted off the ground, and it was so quick. Before I knew it we were over the12 Apostles. It was an increasable view, 100% glad I've done it. It was only a 10 minute ride. But it was great, flying only 400ft over the water. Landing was bumpy as anything and I was glad to be on the ground again. Not going to become a helicopter pilot any time soon.

I walked to the view point of the 12 Apostles and got some great pictures with the sunset. We then visited the Loch and Gorge arriving on the beach all I could see was the limestone cliffs surrounding me, the clear blue water crashing on the sand, it was a stunning beach, hidden by the cliffs. It was getting dark now as the sun had nearly disappeared. But we has time to visit our last sight seeing point. London Bridge. It's a rock formation that used to look like the London Bridge, hence the name. Not sure it looks much like it now, but still it looked impressive. Everything seems to be named after something back home in England. As the sunlight went completely we had finished the trip on the Great Ocean Road. It has been a great day, but now the horrible part. The 3 hour drive back to Melbourne. I felt sorry for Brad, I was tired and I hasn't been driving all day. I manages to sleep a bit before the planned stop. This town was in the middle of no where, in the main high street they had every take away joint you can think of within 2 minutes of each other, red roster, BK, KFC, Subway, the big Mc D. It was crazy. I went for KFC, it was a bad choice, wasn't that great - not sure what they do to their chickens. Lol. Inside it looked like everyone has come out for their Friday night dinner... I think I was the slimmest person in there..!

Time to get back on the minibus for the remaining 2 hours to Melbourne. It must have been all the fresh air. I couldn't keep my eyes open. Before I knew it we were driving over the west gate bridge into the city. When I arrived back at the hostel, I went to my room, showered and. Z z z z... I was so tired.! Looking forward to another fun filled day tomorrow!!!!! :-)