The Great Ocean Road, October 2002

The Great Ocean Road was well signposted from Queenscliff, so I made my way through Torquay and came to my first stop. It was the famous surfing beach, Bell's Beach. This is were Patrick Swayze's character is supposed to have jumped in the water at the end of the film Point Break. The filming was actually done in California though. The weather hadn't improved, so it was quite rough and drizzling a bit. There were a few brave, or mad, people in the water surfing. It looked cold from where I was standing.

Some of the 12 Apostles

The road then followed the coast pretty closely with some nice views. It reminded me a lot of Cornwall. By about 5pm, I arrived in the town of Lorne, where there is a YHA. So I decided to stay there for the night. I was in the attic of a small A-frame hut. Unusually, there was no television, just an Internet console. So I had to walk into the town to see what excitement there was on a Sunday night. The answer was none. I grabbed a takeaway, had a couple of drinks and then went back to the YHA. In the end, a group of us ended up having a drink and a chat in the kitchen. You're not supposed to, but everyone who staying there joined in, so we weren't disturbing anyone. There was only about 8 of us.

The next morning, I set off westwards. The road continued to follow the coast closely until just after Apollo Bay. Here it turns inland and the drive becomes a lot less interesting. Just before the 12 Apostles, it does come close to the shore again, but you're on a high cliff and there's not a great deal you can see from the car.

The 12 Apostles are very famous. I stopped at the visitors' centre, which had some smelly, though environmentally friendly toilets, and not much else apart from some poetry displays. From the car park, you walk under the highway to a boardwalk which gives views of the 12 Apostles, which are rock stacks which have been separated from the cliff. Why they're called the 12 Apostles is anyone's guess. There are really 16 of them, though you can only see about 8 from the land. I walked along to the end of the viewing area, took a few pictures and that was it. I couldn't really see what all the fuss was about.

Arch at Loch Ard Gorge

So I got back in the car and drove onto Loch Ard Gorge. The Loch Ard was a clipper which was driven onto the rocks in 1878. Of the 55 people onboard, only 2 survived. The coastline here is impressive with archways, dramatic cliffs and a blowhole where the sea has tunnelled into the cliffs and the roof has collapsed at the far end. There were paths and I spent over an hour walking around the area. I thought it was well worth it.

Driving on, there were a few other rocks and arches to see along the way. London Bridge used to be one of the more famous arches, but it collapsed in 1990 stranding some tourists who had to be rescued by helicopter. The next real stop was the Bay of Islands, which is yet more rock stacks out in the water. After a while, you get a bit "rocked out".

It was about 3pm when I got to the end of the Great Ocean Road. I hadn't really decided where I was going to go next, so I consulted the map and the Grampians looked like a good bet, so I drove onto Halls Gap.

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