Cruising Along One of The Most Beautiful Roads in the World
The Great Ocean Road, 9th to 11th January 2002
We got up casually this morning, no more rushing around for buses,
we've got our own car now! Graeme had left us a note on the tabletop
telling us to take our time & enjoy ourselves. That we will do!
By about midday we had the car loaded up. Kes had kindly leant us
two tents & sleeping mats, which should prove very useful. These
were thrown in the back along with the rest of our stuff.
We pulled out of the drive and headed up the road. After filling the
tank with petrol (Very cheap by the way! Filling the tank, about 70
litres, only cost A$45 (about 15 pounds)! Stinge and I alternated
being the driver. Driving the Mercedes is so easy and you're king of
the road in it!
We drove round to Sorrento (not in Italy) where the ferry crosses
the bay. We'd timed it quite well because when we found the
terminal, there was a ferry waiting. The ferry was quite expensive,
A$50, but hey ho. As we pulled up to the ferry, we had no idea which
way to drive onto it, the arrows painted on the ground all pointed
AWAY from the ferry decks. After a minute or two, one of the crew,
who were standing around having a chat, decided it might be a good
idea to wave us on. Clever guy. He came and stood right in front of
the car and waved us onto the back of the ferry. He stood there,
waving incessantly, but if we moved we would run him over!
Eventually he moved, and we drove on. Moments after we got on, the
gates shut and the ferry began to pull out of the port.
After a very short journey, we could see Queenscliff, our
destination, looming into view. We ran down to the car, hopped
inside and after a short wait drove onto dry land.
We took a quick drive up to Geelong and then down to Torquay, where
the Great Ocean Road starts. For the rest of the day we drove along
this beautiful stretch of road, occasionally stopping to look at the
view, take a few photos and walk around the towns. There are
countless beautiful beaches and fantastic ocean view points along
the road.
By about 5:30pm, we began to think about where we could stay for the
night. After about an hour of driving along the road, stopping at
every hostel, bed & breakfast & campsite, we realised we probably
should have thought about this earlier. Every place was fully
booked. Eventually, we got to one place that had one or two camping
vacancies, so we eagerly booked a space.
We assumed that it would be easy to work out how to put the tent up.
However, it required a bit more thinking than we originally thought.
After about half-an-hour of fiddling and experimenting, we had both
tents up. Lucky we've got a couple of brain cells between us. We
made the cardinal mistake of not counting the pegs before we left,
and we were about a dozen short. But we made do, and the tents
stayed up.
We took a moonlit stroll along this amazing sandy beach. The beach
was perfect, the best we've seen so far. After about half-an-hour on
the sand, we came to the Apollo Bay shops. We were originally going
to get a drink to celebrate our situation, but we couldn't find a
pub. We then decided to get a celebratory bite to eat, but at that
exact moment, all the cafes seemed to be closing! We ended up
getting celebratory snacks from the supermarket!
On our walk back to the campsite, we noticed how many stars could be
seen clearly from here. Every step we took away from the main
shopping street, more and more stars come into view, until the sky
was ablaze with thousands of pin prick lights. We paused to take in
this wonderful view, not forgetting to locate the famous 'Southern
Cross'.
The night was a noisy one, the sea wind rushed right up the beach,
through the field and into our tents, but eventually we dropped off.
The next two days were spent doing the same thing. We enjoyed the
drive along this fantastic stretch of road, stopping occasionally to
enjoy the view or visit a beach. On one stop we practically off-roaded
to reach a small, sandy beach. The road was so bumpy it was
unbelievable, even when we drove at 5km/h, we were still thrown
around. We also made a stop to see the world famous 'Twelve
Apostles', a group of rock stacks and formations in the sea around
the coast.
Our second night was spent at Port Campbell. We decided to spend
most of the day there to make use of the lovely beach while it was
still sunny. It was quite a small beach, but not too crowded, with
clear, sparkling blue water. We don't get much sleep on that night
because the wind became incredibly strong. The tent was flapping
like crazy all night and we were sure the whole thing would take off
in a Tornado. However, the tents managed to survive the night
without a problem.
The last day of our excursion was spent driving from the end of the
Great Ocean Road, along an inland road to Geelong then back through
Melbourne. Driving in Melbourne City was quite interesting. Just as
we approached on the motorway we could see a huge traffic jam
stretching along the motorway, over the bridge and out into the
distance. Luckily, we managed to hop across the lanes and off before
the jam. After some frantic city driving and some guesswork along
with some map-reading, we managed to get out of the city and on our
way home. I love driving in cities!
Before getting home, we drove past an Ikea stored and decided to
make a stop. We'd decided to jazz our van up and make it look really
stylish. We're going to buy some cool rugs and pillow form Ikea,
where everything is stylish but cheap, just what we want! After a
bit of looking and planning, we made some mental notes for tomorrow
then moved on.
We got back to our 'home' and tidied the car up. We all took much
needed showers after 3 days of being on the road, then chilled for
the rest of the evening. We tried to watch a DVD, but we had some
problems. Luckily, we had help from Kes' brother and he sorted it so
we could watch the DVD downstairs on the mini-cinema. Thanks!
After watching Enemy Of The State on the huge screen, we headed to
bed. Tomorrow will be the day we get our own van!
Next Diary Entry >>
|
