So on the 30th of January 2011 at oh 900 hours or so, Regina and I embarked on our great Great Ocean Road adventure. It was meant to be, then it wasn't meant to be and then it was meant to be again and now it was to be. We left foster early enough as the drive was going to be a long one. Its about two hours to Melbourne and about another two to get out the other side to Apollo Bay. Traffic in Melbourne wasn't too bad and we had the route planned out really well from the night before and we got straight through without going through any toll roads. Melbourne looked nice too as we passed through it, we will see that in a week or so. Out the other side of Melbourne we followed signs for the Great Ocean Road and stopped off in the town of Torquay to get some tourist info maps and some food for lunch. I think it was in Torquay that we had the lunch too, or maybe it was Lorne…. I guess it doesn't matter. We stopped down by the beach and had some sandwiches before hitting the road again. Just outside of town we saw signs for Bells Beach, which is supposedly the best surf beach in Australia (but only during the winter months). We popped down for a look but it wasn't really anything special from our vantage point so we headed on again. In the tourist office the lady had given Regina a list of the highlight stops along they way, and I think the first of those was Split Point lighthouse. We had already passed the golf course with the thousand resident kangaroos. I wasn't in the mood for a thousand kangaroos so we skipped it. We took a walk up to the lighthouse (it looked like a lighthouse naturally). Nice views out of the coast and the cliffs and things, we also saw Eagle Rock from up there, which is a big sea column thing, like the Twelve Apostles except just one of them (I wonder did they think of calling it something else instead of Eagle Rock, like maybe Jesus Rock… guess not). At this stage we had passed under the Great Ocean Road monument thing that stretched out over the road, Regina informed me, from her reading, that the entire road is a war memorial to those Aussies who had died in the Great Wars… there was lots of them. I don't really remember seeing any more memorials along the way, no more so than were in every other town we had passed through (Lest We Forget statues in every town).

New paragraph now for no other reason than I feel like it. Next stop, and this might actually have been in Lorne now that I think about it, was Eskerine Falls. Ten km side trip up the hills from the main road, and 400+ steps down to the waterfall (and back up after… poor Regina). It was a really nice waterfall, quite high and with really jungly looking vegetation growing all around it. As I was zooming in the camera to take a picture I saw a bird sitting on a branch that just happened to be hanging down in my line of sight, small enough to add to the picture and not take from it, but the little fecker managed to fly away before I could get him in the shot. It was that sort of place though, very paradisiacal…except for the steps and the lots of other tourists. On the way back to the main road we stopped by Teddys Lookout, the ideal spot for taking pictures of the Great Ocean Road if you are a budding amateur photographer…. Regina is again reading transcripts to me from her tourist guide. The view was pretty class though. In one direction you can see the road weaving its way around a cliff and the other you can see all the way up the coast.

It had been a long drive, and the roads became really winding and switching back and forth. I decided that we weren't stopping anywhere else until we got to Apollo Bay, apart from a few lookout points to get some fresh air on my back. The road itself was the attraction from there to Apollo Bay anyway. Very much the stuff of dreams I would say, apart from the roadworks. It seems that any time it rains very heavily the hills turn to mudslides and wash down onto the road. You could see fresh mud stains along the ground and even on the barrier on the far side of the road. In fairness it had rained very heavily about two weeks before we got there and they had to close the road for about five days, but nobody was hurt, and that's the main thing. We pulled into Apollo Bay at about four or so, nothing like six hours of driving to dirty up your tshirt!!! Showers all round and off down for a look at the beach and a walk around the town. Great Ocean Road stage one complete, the next day was a rest day in Apollo Bay before hitting the road south for the Twelve Apostles and all that rocky coast and on to Port Fairy for a yet unknown period of time….

We stayed in the Apollo Bay Backpackers, by the way. Just a quick footnote. It was a bit dirty, especially the room. Other than that it was a typical backpacker hostel I think. It had a free breakfast, and there was about 10 varieties of breakfast cereal, bread, lots of jams, juice, coffee and tea. I had three bowls of cereal on the second morning just to get our moneys worth. If anyone is planning on coming this way and doesn't mind a bit of dirt I reckon its well worth it for the breakfast. If you do mind the dirt I can give you a sneak preview of what the place we stayed in on the way back the ocean road 5 days later where we are right now typing this. The YHA in Apollo Bay, the Eco Beach hostel, is the nicest hostel in the whole world. It is definitely a five star hostel. Its really clean and modern and cozy. Its savage cabbage, but has no free breakfast…… a clincher in my book!!!! Anyway, thought I would add some usefulness to this for once….