The Great Ocean Road

So I was really looking forward to hitting the road for one of the most famous road trips you can do in Australia.  I booked up with Bunyip and we got picked up at the usual VERY early time and taken to the office to meet the buses to head off.  There’s a good long drive out of the city before you start hitting the official start of the GOR.

So what can I tell you about the Great Ocean Road?  Well for starters and most obvious is that the scenery is fantastic.  The whole road is just one bend after another of stunning scenery. 

Our first stop along the road was in Torquay where our guide/driver was trying to get a coffee date that I had helped assist set up.  Let me explain…the drive out of Melbourne is long and boring, just highway.  A lot of people were just sleeping in the bus as well, there’s not much to see or do and it was an early start.  However as I was sat just behind our guide, anyone seated around the guide (front passenger seat or just behind) is generally expected to talk to them to help keep them entertained.  It also works for your benefit as a customer as being right there you get to ask a lot more questions and get much more involved in learning about what you are seeing on the tour. 

So anyway – our guide spotted this surf chick chuntering down the highway in her car with all these surf stickers stuck on her car.  As we overtook her he waved at her.  She looked over a bit confused and surprised but waved back. 

We separated slightly but then this behaviour continues with him getting me to write on bits of paper, what’s your name? do you surf? Are you going to Torquay?  Do you want to meet for a coffee in Torquay?    Luckily for him she was nice and was flirting a bit back through the cars, it was just tooo funny.  Unluckily for him, another car cut him up a bit further one and then we lost her so he wasn’t able to say WHERE to meet in Torquay. 

Well anyway – Torquay I felt was a bit of a nothing stop but in the main somewhere for our guide to pick up food supplies for us.  We had a bit of a wonder around as its very much a surf place for shops. 

Our first proper stop was the famous Bells Beach – you know the one – the one from the famous Point Break scene?  Well that was definitely cool getting to see that and the surfers showing their stuff really helped. 

Next up we visited another very famous place for lots of Brits and Aussies – the Round the Twist Lighthouse!  Do you remember it from when you were a kid? Well anyway, yes it was just a lighthouse, but it was pretty cool. Much of the tour of the Great Ocean Road is just sitting back in the bus and watching the scenery go by with stops at some particularly scenic places including stopping in the towns of Lorne and Apollo Bay.  Both were pleasant enough as seaside places but didn’t feel they were anything amazing. 

We then headed to the Otways to walk through the Rainforest seeing lots of giant trees, Golden Orb spiders, ewwww and lizards etc.

That night we were staying in the Otway Ranges National Park.  I had originally just booked to do the basic camping option but at the last minute after talking to some other people, I decided to upgrade to dorm accommodation.  I wasn’t going to as I didn’t want people to see me as some kind of spoiled brat not wanting to camp but then someone pointed out to me that really it doesn’t matter what other people think as long as I’m comfortable.  Its not that I don’t like camping –I do like camping, but as my friends will tell you, I need my comforts…my pillow, my nice warm sleeping bag, and a nice big inflatable mattress.  I’m a wimp, and I knew that this was camping basic stylie – foam mat, basic sleeping bag and well if you happened to bring a jumper you could roll up into a pillow. 

To be honest, deciding to go into the dorms was the best decision ever – as I was the only one on the tour to do it so it meant my shared accommodation was totally private.  Apart from me, only the guide wasn’t camping but they always get their own room so I was on my own!  What a luxury! I think a few people were a bit jealous really even though they didn’t admit it! hee hee hee. 

 

So the first place we stayed was very basic very much out in a National Park but had everything you needed.  There was a main lodge/kitchen area for us to prepare dinner and then the loos and shower block were pretty good and clean – but you needed to pay for the showers as there is such a water shortage out there.  You have to work out exactly how many minutes do I need to wash myself? My room was also quite nice – basic but clean and comfy – nothing to complain about!

Day 2 was the best day out of them all for me although the weather got pretty miserable with lots of wind and drizzle and no sunshine.  We visited the historic shipwreck coast famous for, well for lots of shipwrecks! 

This was also when I got to see the Twelve Apostles.  I had been desperate to do the helicopter road over them, half for them, half for the chance to go in a helicopter without it costing the earth.  Ok you might think that $75 for 8 minutes is a lot of money – but actually that’s pretty good value when you think that most rides available are for 30-60 mins and just hundreds and hundreds, so this way you get an experience without having to spend a fortune. 

Unfortunately when we got there it seemed that luck wasn’t on my side.  No one else on my bus wanted to go up in a helicopter, all thinking that it cost too much and the helicopter operators wouldn’t take me just on my own up. 

Our guide said for me to go down to the boardwalk to see the Apostles from there but to come back within 30 mins as he was going to hang round the helicopter centre to see if he could get me a on ride with other people if anyone else turned up wanting to go on a ride. 

Off I trotted feeling a bit disconcerted and disappointed but got some great views and photos anyway.  I headed back a bit earlier than everyone else as he said to before and then saw him waving at me from a distance and hurry up over there.  Low and behold he had worked some magic!  Two older ladies had turned up wanting a ride for 15 minutes which was over double the price of what I was wanting BUT somehow he had managed to get the ladies to wait for me and for the operators to agree to take me for the price of the 8 minute ride (providing of course I kept my trap shut and didn’t let on that I had paid half the amount they had!).  Well I was just over the moon.  They were all waiting for me so they had to rush me through payment, weighing me (lovely!) then giving me a quick safety briefing, the most important thing I got from it was – don’t touch anything inside the helicopter! 

I was really nervous about the ride given my fear of heights and the massive problems I have with pressure in my ears particularly when flying short distances as the ascent and descent is really quick.  Luckily they said we weren’t going high enough for it to really be a problem.  Being in a helicopter is like nothing else!  The manoeuvrability of those things is amazing, one way you are going to the right, the next curving round to the left and then dipping down and then back up again.  It was so exhilarating.  Yes, of course the views were great but just the whole experience was a never forget for me and if I get the chance to do it again I will do like a shot.

After the Twelve Apostles it was time to head further up the coast to see Lord Ard Gorge and the collapsed “London Bridge”.  On the evening of 15 January 1990 the main arch connecting London Bridge to the mainland cracked and fell away into the sea.  Fortunately no one was injured, however just before this happened two people had walked across to admire the view.  They were stranded there for 2 hours before managing to be helicopter rescued. 

The rest of the day was spent driving to the Bay of Martyrs and Bay of Islands and Tower Hill.  We then headed to our campsite in the Grampians National Park.  Unfortunately, it was here that our guide managed to get a bit lost and missed the turning and we added probably an hour an a half on to our journey.  Typical man though as he kept on just driving and driving without looking at a map for ages when he thought he had gone wrong – grrrrr.

Our camp was great for that night.  We were staying in the middle of nowhere on a place run by this old typical outback aussie guy.  He’s the local pub, and the local airfield and part of the volunteer fire brigade.  He told us loads of stories about all the stuff that went on with the last massive bush fires and how involved the local community get and all about the political side of things where the locals are arguing with what the government are saying to do about how to handle it and how to put it out.  They do a lot of back burning in Australia when the fires get out of control which means they basically burn an area on purpose in order to control the fire, but burn too much and you damage so much nature.  

Once again, I had a whole place to myself that night – bliss!  Unfortunately something didn’t agree with me about sleeping on my own as my last day on tour I felt decidedly ill!  I started off ok in the morning.  We headed off to Reids Outlook and Balconies to see some amazing views of the Grampians.  Then off to MacKenzie Falls.  We got a lovely view of the falls at the top, but this being a backpacker tour, of course it was on for hiking down to the bottom, but what goes down must come up.  This is when I started feeling worse and I can’t even make the excuse that it was the exercise as I didn’t get that far!

We walked from the car park to a look out point to see the top of the falls and I was already feeling a bit off colour and faint then but carried on.  We then carried on to walk down the falls, probably only 5-10 minutes after starting to walk down I started feeling really faint and lightheaded.  I could see how far down it was (I think it took about an hour round trip to get down and back so I’m sure you can work it out!) and thought to myself, my god, if I’m feeling faint walking down a few non-steep steps, how the hell am I going to get myself back up here?   Maybe I wimped out, maybe not but I don’t regret my decision as I think you know when you can push your body and when you can’t.  To be honest, missing out on the walk to the falls wasn’t the worst of it, that was our warm up to a 3 hour hike in the Grampians which I figured I definitely couldn’t do if I couldn’t do the falls.  I was incredibly disappointed, especially afterwards when I saw what amazing views they got, however I realised it was the best option for me when I saw the route they were doing and that it was a proper full on hike rather than some of the other walks that I had done before. 

The hike starts at one point in the Grampians and then ends in another so our guide doesn’t do the walk with the group, they have to follow signs and hope they get out the other end!  That also meant though that I was with our guide.  It wasn’t so bad, we headed into town to fill up petrol, had an ice cream and then had a snooze whilst we waited for everyone to come back. 

It was a disappointing end to my GOR trip but I had so many more great things to come!  We returned back to Melbourne late that night and I checked in to the YHA Melbourne City Central hoping to get some good rest.

The Melbourne YHA suited me a bit better than Habitat but I still wasn’t that keen on it – it was split up so each floor had a tiny TV room and a tiny kitchen, so it was ok, but not all that communal.  The backpackers bar that was supposedly there wasn’t particularly backpackerish.  Its hard to say if this is good or bad as some of the hostel bars can be OTT with partying, but this seemed to be full of outside people drinking and eating so generally not mixing as much as backpackers would. 

I went into a 4 bed dorm which had two older ladies in it in their 50’s-60’s.  I thought – great, no one coming in late, perfect.  The first night wasn’t too bad apart from heat and traffic noise L  Night two though – OMG, although I should say, the morning of check out.

I was due to get a 7.30 am bus from Melbourne to Sydney.  One of the other ladies in my room was also due to get a bus around that time.  I figured, well, if she’s anything like my mother she’ll need an age to get ready but I’m sure she won’t get up THAT much earlier than me.  Oh yeah? Try 4.30 am!!!  I have NO idea what the hell she was doing but what drove my really crazy was she got up and was in and out the room that many times I lost count.  So after a very early start - I was due to spend 12-15 hours on a bus doing the road trip to Sydney - would I recommend it to anyone? NO!  Definately fly!  

Next up catching up with folks in Sydney!