Great Ocean Road - 6th to 8th December 2008
Car Kilometres: 187,084
Distance Travelled: 869km
Total Distance Travelled: 18,833km
For the purpose of the Blog I am classing the Great Ocean Road as the section of travelling we did between Melbourne and a town called Nelson, which is just on the border of South Australia. Admittedly there are sections of this that certainly would not fall into the category of Great or Ocean, only making the cut by the fact they were classed as Roads.
We left Melbourne and the city sprawl, passing many signs to AFL team places that I had seen on TV. I am not sure Jemma got as much out of driving through Geelong (Gary Ablet's Team, not the ex Liverpool defender though) or seeing signs for Carlton (Chris Judd's new place of work) and Hawthorne (the 2008 Title winners) as I obviously was. Before too long we were back in to the open country and making some headway and after about 100km's or so we reached Torquay.

Torquay is not like the Devon equivalent. Initially, because it was sunny, but mostly because it is full of tanned teenage surfers all looking cool and most of them apparently buying more new gear than you can shake a (very large) stick at. Our only real stop in Torquay was the McDonald's (sorry) but it looked a nice kind of place. Then we set off onto the proper Great Ocean Road which, according to the signs, started about another 2km's out of town.

You can do Great Ocean Road trips from Melbourne which apparently take you all the way across (and back) in a day so we knew the whole drive wasn't going to be that far. We hadn't made any kind of plan other that seeing how it went and how far we got and then stopping when we felt like it. What we hadn't planned were the numerous stops on the way. It did say in the, ever trusty, Lonely Planet that there would be a lot of places to stop and admire the view but in our head that meant about 10 or so. That would be a fair few considering we had driven 600 or so km's in a day before, and only stopped a couple of times. But no, we had only travelled about 15km's or so when we saw a stunning deserted beach and stopped for a quick walk. As we later realised, if we stopped at every 'stunning deserted beach' along the way we would still be there.

The rest of the day we stopped at, saw and admired from the car, a number of beaches, rocky out crops, amazing houses on the hills looking over the coast and even a lighthouse with period properties around it. Amazingly, despite the fact that the road was relatively busy (at least in Australian standards) each beach was practically deserted and there were only a handful of people at the lighthouse despite the amazing views along the coast and beaches. I would also go on about how blue the sea was and how white the sand was but I think you probably get the picture.

By this point it was getting on for about 4pm and we had only travelled about half way so we were just starting to think about a stop when a slight inland detour took us through a small wooded area full of tall eucalyptus trees. This was not unusual in its self but I noticed a couple of cars parked up and a small group of people looking into the trees. After a small and discreet U-turn manoeuvre (no handbrake turns folks, sorry) we parked up and started gazing into the seemingly empty trees to see what the fuss was all about. Then, after about 5 minutes or so a small furry shape became visible and we had officially seen our first wild koala. The thing about koalas (ok. It may not be specific to koalas but it was in this case), was that once you knew what you were looking for they became easier to spot. After about 20 minutes or so we had counted about 15 including a mother and baby, and another daredevil section of the koala clan, who we on the thinnest branch overhanging the road. Wild koala Bears... Check, Next Item...

The free rest area at Apollo Bay ended up being the night stop over area that we hadn't thought we would use. Unfortunately, free rest areas are best described as basic although you always get more than you pay for. Possibly more accurately described as public toilets with a bit of grass next to them. So, they are not usually equipped with things like power and hot showers etc. This being exactly the case here, we emerged, after a good night's sleep, looking grubby. Unfortunately again, this is the way we had to stay for Great Ocean road day two. It's is a good job we have been on the road long enough to not really worry about looking a bit scruffy.

Day 2 started much as Day 1 with a number of excellent deserted beaches but was obviously getting rockier as we travelled west. We had a couple of stopping points early on, including a much needed coffee and breakfast stop, and after about 50km's or so we reached the Port Campbell National Park. You may not have heard of the Port Campbell National park (we hadn't) but you may have heard of certain features called the Twelve Apostles. These are the rock formations that were just off the coast and are the back drop for all the Great Ocean Road postcards and also for a fair few of the Australia photos you may have seen.

The Twelve Apostles (6 of which are viewable from the platform) are natural rock pillars formed by the sea over millions of years. The sea starts by forming a cave, which gets enlarged into a peninsular, then and archway and finally into a pillar. I am sure any Geologist would go pale at that layman's description, but for the sake of blogging it will have to suffice. Despite the fact that it was a touch cloudy for us, the view of the 6 Apostles in line with the rocky cliffs and pounding waves below was outstanding. If it is possible to over photograph a certain view then I may have given it a go at this point. Luckily for most of you reading the blog, you may only ever be subjected to one or two of my favourites.

Other spectacular sights included the Loch Ard Gorge and the imaginatively named Arch. Both of these were similar to the Apostles but in various forms of development. Another famous site is London Bridge. London Bridge was named due to the twin arches that reminded early pioneers of the old London Bridge. The problem with this name is that in 1990 the arch connecting the bridge to the mainland collapsed. Luckily there was no one on the arch but apparently there were two tourists who were cut off and had to be rescued by helicopter. The formation is still called London Bridge but now is very similar to the aforementioned Arch. I guess that 'half London Bridge' was not catchy enough and 'Arch' was already taken.

After the end of another long but picturesque day we pitched up on a near deserted campsite in Nelson and, while watching Kangaroos bounce by, began planning our final run through South Australia and the formidable Nullabor Plain.