The Great Ocean Road...Hold On This Is A Long One!

Friday Jan 4th was hot...like over 100 degrees hot. So we tried to beat the heat and get out of my Mother's apartment (which doesn't have AC) by doing some shopping, eating, and seeing a movie. We ate at the Oriental Teahouse and here we dabbled in lots of delicious foods and I ate a shark fin dumpling which was quite tasty. We then set out shopping along Queens St, but most of the shops were very expensive so we didn't get much. Then we went to see a movie at the Jam Factory. This was a cool older building that used to be, you guessed it, a jam factory. They renovated the inside and put in some shopping, food, and a movie theater. Pretty neat stuff. We saw the Hobbit (my second time) and it was spectacular. Unfortunately our goal of beating the heat failed. When we got out of the movie theater at 9 pm the temperature was still 95 degrees. So needless to say we didn't get much sleep that night because it was sticky. The next day was much cooler (thank goodness) and the perfect day to start a road trip. The destination? The Great Ocean Road. Which is definitely a must see place!!! The Great Ocean Road runs along the southwest coast of Australia and is a gorgeous stretch of road that is filled to the brim with attractions. The first stopping point we made was at Bells Beach which was the beach where the final scene of the movie Point Break was set at but weirdly enough wasn't filmed there. For those of you who don't really remember that movie/never saw that movie, here's the link to the last scene I am talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1ud7EnrZHQ This is also where many surfing competitions take place.

Further up the road you run through Aireys Inlet where you can find the Split Point Lighthouse.

And the view from up there was breath taking.

The next spot on the drive is a place called Lorne where you can find Teddy's Lookout and Erskine Falls. Both were amazing. But before you reach that you can find this Arch over the road along with a memorial of sorts to the men who built the road. It was World War I veterans and Australia's fatality rate in that war was over 60%.

Then there was Teddy's Lookout. From the lookout you could see the road we were about to drive down.

Then there was the Erskine Falls, which was quite the hike to get down to.

Next stop down the road was Apollo Bay. Which is where we decided to break for the night and crash. When we set out from Melbourne we had no plans and no hotel reservations but we knew that all the hotels were booked full until the end of Great Ocean Road. But stopping for gas Mom asked the clerk offhandedly if he knew any places with a room. Turns out the owner of the station had a rental that was open for the night. What luck! So with lodging situation we set out in search of food. Before I left Colorado everyone asked me what I would do in Australia and most of the time I answered, "I'm going to eat kangaroo." So that night I did. It was much more tender than I had anticipated and extremely delicious.

The next day we set out to finish the Great Ocean Road. First stop Cape Otway! Here there is a lighthouse but you had to pay to even enter the grounds to see it. So we opted out. It was a long drive down there but it was worth it to see the incredible amounts of kolas chilling in the tree tops.

It was much cooler seeing them out in the wild then at the zoo. But regardless they look like bumps on logs. Fuzzy, sleepy, and cute bumps yes, but bumps regardless. I think I could learn a thing or two from these animals. They sleep 20 hours a day and that sounds like an easy lifestyle to me. We then continued forward to the Port Campbell National Park. This is where you can find the Gibson Steps, the Twelve Apostles, the Loch Ard Gorge, the Arch, and the London Bridge. We missed the turn of the Gibson Steps on the way down the road but came back at the end of the trip to catch it. The steps were originally carved by hand into the cliffs but were later replaced with the concrete steps you can find today.

Once down the steps you could play on the beach as many people were.

We then moved on to the Twelve Apostles which were absolutely mind blowing. When people describe them to you it doesn't seem that interesting. "It's a bunch of rocks, big deal." But they were amazing. You can only see six apostles now because of the erosion that is happening over time and the other six have been claimed by the sea.

One thing about Australia that I have learned over the course of my stay is that they take safety very seriously and the don't mess around. This sign made me laugh so I had to take a picture of it.

Next was the Loch Ard Gorge.

Next was the Arch.

Lastly was the London Bridge. If you look at the picture you can imagine the rock being attached to the mainland because that's the way it was until 1990 when ironically the London Bridge fell down. It stranded two people on the rock who had to be saved by helicopter.

And that was as far as we went. The road continues on but that was the majority of the sight seeing parts so from there we headed back to Melbourne. The pictures do not do the places justice in the least and everything was spectacular. I can say that this may have been my favorite part of Australia thus far. But we still have three more days left so that could change.