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We were so excited about renting a campervan, hadn't driven in 6 months! Finally the day came around and we were picked up from our hostel and taken 30 km out into the suburbs (in England that'd be into another county but Aussie suburbs are huuuuge). The van was brilliant, it was the cheapest we could find so we weren't expecting much, but it's big. Like a big converted minibus, There's 3 seats in the front, and then behind that thru the side door there's a small sofa and quite a bit of floor space, then a big comfy double bed. In the back there's a two hob stove and an esky (cool box) and heaps of storage space. The van had 450,000 kms on the clock but drove very nicely.
After a quick stop for a celebratory lunch at KFC we were on our way. First stop was just down the road in the suburb of Vermont South, we pulled up near a quiet street called Pin Oak Court... Better known to the world as Ramsay Street!!! How cool is that? Not that we watch it but still. Sadly the road was closed off for filming, but we could see plenty of it from the bottom. We chatted to the security guard and he mentioned that the cast were having lunch in a car park around the corner, so we wandered round to have a gawp. They were all just sitting at tables tucking in, really bizarre, no security or anything either. We could have gone over and butted in if we were big fans, but as my knowledge of Neighbours extends to Harold, Dr. Karl and Madge (and she's dead!) we thought we'd leave them to it.
We drove on down the coast to Sorrento, and caught a ferry across the bay to Queenscliff. Saw loads of pelicans in the bay at Sorrento which was cool. We carried on to Torquay, a small town famous for its surf and for being the birthplace of the Rip Curl company. After a quick look around we carried on to Anglesea, a nothingy little place. By now though we were on the Great Ocean Road proper and enjoying some great views.
Aireeys Inlet was our next stop, and unbeknownst to us the second and final stop in our tv trail... We had come to see the lighthouse, but I was delighted to find out that it was the one from the kids tv show Round the Twist! These places always seemed so unfathomably far away when i saw them on telly as a kid, sometimes I find it hard to believe that I'm actually here.
Our final stop of the day was Lorne, the biggest town on the Road. The campsite was expensive but in a nice location between the river and the sea. We cracked out the stove, and tucked into cheeseburger washed down with beer; a good end to a good day.
First stop on day two was Apollo Bay, a nice little place where we had a picnic lunch and a wander around. By now though, the towns were less the focus than the Road itself. From Lorne the views had started to get really spectacular. All the way through to Apollo Bay the road twisted and snaked past gorgeous coastal views. Stunning.
After Apollo Bay the road entered the Otways National Park, which probably would have been a lot nicer but for the weather, which had taken a real turn for the worse. One highlight was seeing a black wallaby which hopped out into the road in front of us and then back into the bushes again.
Emerging from the Otways, we entered the 'Shipwreck Coast', named for all the vessels wrecked in its waters. This is also the area with limestone stacks all along its coastline. First up was the most famous attraction on the Road; the Twelve Apostles. It was a very ompressive sight indeed: about eight huge stacks of rocks towering over the sea (the rest are submerged), remnants of a receding coastline. Apparently 6000 years ago the land extended a further 300 metres! Setup was really good with a long boardwalk and plenty of different views. Shame the weather was rubbish, but nonetheless very impressive.
It was getting late so we pressed on to Port Campbell, a pretty little place, one street town with a little harbour. Had a barbie for din-dins: lamb steak, ribs and sausages (or snags; where possible Aussies have to give things a daft nickname, it's in the constitution). Yum yum. We made a friend who obviously agreed, a big fat labrador. Don't know who she belonged to but she was so cute I couldn't resist contributing to her obesity with sausage, although she nearly but my hand off. Ouch.
Next morning, we had to backtrack a little to see some formations we had missed out the night before. First was Loch Ard Gorge which was pretty amazing. The gorge is lovely but I was amazed by a huge tunnel that the sea has carved through the rock for about 200 m inland! Halfway along a huge portion of the roof has collapsed, creating a sort of nightmarish churning lagoon.
Our final two stops were London Bridge and the Bay of Islands. In 1990 London Bridge (a rock stack which was connected to the mainland by a thin rock bridge) collapsed, leaving two people to be rescued by helicopter. Rather wonderfully they were having an affair, and so had to flee the tv cameras waiting to interview them! The Bay of Islands isn't very well known but I thought it was beautiful. It was, as you'd guess, a bay filled with lots of large rock formations, and was a stunning sight.
The Great Ocean Road wound down from here and soon ended. We were headed for the Grampians, but first we had a boring 3 hour drive through endless wheatfields, a region known as the Wimmera. We stopped for lunch at a bizarre picnic spot. The benches faced out onto a huge open grassy area. But on closer inspection we noticed signs regarding swimming and boating... Turned out it's (supposed to be) a lake! The country is in the grips of its worst ever drought, and this really brought it home to us how bad the situation must be. Around 5pm we was mountains on the horizon, and soon we were almost within the park. We stopped at the information office and the woman told us there was a lovely camp site halfway through the park. Well, we searched and we searched but we couldn't find it... After about an hour we finally found it; closed. But not just closed last month, oh no, it was closed down 15 months ago in a forest fire! You would think that the 'information' lady (clue's in the title there love) might have known about this. We found another campsite which we shared with two fat, perverted (probably) German men, and a woman who was cycling all the way around Australia as such was clearly insane. I failed miserably in my attempt to light a fire (the wood was damp I tells ya!) so we had an early night.
The next morning and the crappy weather had cleared so we had a beautiful Saturday morning to explore the park. The visitor centre pointed us towards some highlights, the first of which was Bokora lookout. Stunning, stunning, stunning. I've never seen for such a long distance over 180 degrees of land. To the right was a deep blue lake and mountain ranges, and stretching out below were vast plains punctuated by hills and mountains. It was gorgeous. Our second stop was the balconies. This was an hour round walk through forests with great views. We reached the balconies, several ledges of rock jutting out from a cliff face which overlooked more breathtaking views. The two main ledges were closed but I sneaked onto the upper one to pose for a quick photo (I know, such a rebel).
This was pretty much it for this part of our journey. Next, we were headed for the Outback.
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