Road Trip - The Great Ocean Road - Day 1

I'd originally planned to take the train from Melbourne to Adelaide. But having talked to Lindon about their trip on the Great Ocean Road I decided I needed to get out of Melbourne and do a road trip.

Which meant getting a car, and setting off the next morning. So I ran around and got a really cheap rental sorted and suddenly felt really great about the weekend.

The first day didn't start out too well though - although it worked out in the end.

I'd arranged to pick the car up at 9am, but when I got there they wouldn't let me have it as even though their system said I'd paid - they needed a voucher to prove it. After a few hours messing around trying to get the voucher I finally got it, and went back to get the car. I also used the delay to negotiate dropping the car off at the airport rather than down town - which was really good, as the airport office closed a lot later, and they even waved the huge fee they usually charge for an airport drop off.

And then it was window down - music on (the car had USB for MP3 players) and off on the open road. Once your out of Melbourne, you soon end up by the sea, with incredible sea side scenery and plenty of stops along the way - here's a few pics:

Just one of the many many incredible views:



One of the many many light houses on this stretch of the journey:



If your going to go over the edge of a cliff - don't forget to sing YMCA and do the actions on the way down :-)



Another view:



One of my favourite places was Artillery Rocks that had these really strange rock formations, and what looked like fossils. There was no one else there, and I enjoyed a good hour of wandering along the "rocky shore line":









This one looks like a fossilised alien head - OK so I have an active imagination:





When I got to Port Campbell there were no rooms in the hostels - so I ended up at the Best Western and got a great deal on a room. I then headed out for food and on to the (not quite) Twelve Apostles at sunset. Here's some pics:



Just to prove I was here:



Looking the other way - more on these two tomorrow:



A close up:



Some of the other people enjoying the view - from the wrong side of the don't cross this sign sign :-)



The view along what will become another apostle in a squillion years:



Yep - I took a lot of pictures of the same thing:



Ah - something different:



And a close up in case anyone missed the last picture:



And in the dark:


4375

It was really cold when the sun went in, so I decided to go for a drink in the "bar" which basically turned out to be the owners (Andy and Steph) sitting room. As there was only me and them there we watch the cricket (we all thought NZ would have won if it hadn't been for the rain), and Ozzie rules football - which is fairly straight forward to follow once you have the rules explained. I ended up staying chatting away until all hours - a great ending to great day...