Our nippy little automatic

After much dis­cus­sion and delib­er­a­tion on the best/cheapest way to see the Great Ocean Road, we hired a car from Adelaide to Mel­bourne for the 3 day trip with our itin­er­ary loosely based on a con­ven­tional tour.

Avis hired us a reas­on­ably priced 5 door, brand new, auto­matic, Toyota Corolla which was lovely to drive. We (I) were par­tic­u­larly happy in was not white like most Aus­sie motor vehicles! The auto­matic gears were easier than we feared so, after a quick and embar­rass­ing ini­tial explan­a­tion, we were on the road.

Driv­ing out of town we climbed up into the pretty wine region of the Adelaide Hills and the Ger­man set­tle­ment of Harndorf. At the cel­lar door we sampled a few good wines, of which Nepenthe Winery was a high­light for James hav­ing enjoyed their mixed grape blend named ‘Tryst’ many times before. In town lunch was clas­sic Ger­man fare of saus­ages and sauerkraut. We pottered around the shops remark­ing how famil­iar the European cul­ture and archi­tec­ture seemed.

We jour­neyed hard along the straight Aus­tralian roads, so much so that I only took 8 pho­tos that entire day. Mir­acle! Even­ing fell as we neared Halls Gap in the Grampian Moun­tains where we were to stay at the renowned Eco-lodge YHA. As light faded into dark the scenic route wound round and round and over the moun­tain­side where signs warned of leap­ing Kangaroos and fall­ing rocks. Going slightly crazed with the end­less extreme cor­ner­ing needed we amused ourselves using mock Scot­tish accents describ­ing the dangers of the high­land pass.

“Ye’ not going up t’mountain when the ‘roos are out in the dark, are‘ye mad man!?” James began

“Why yes, and those rocks could fall all about ‘ye too” replied Cesca

Finally arriv­ing safely but tired and hungry we headed to local pub for nour­ish­ment on a fel­low guests recom­mend­a­tion. Sadly their palettes did not match ours, but the mound of pasta filled a cer­tain gap and I gave an extra mark for the innov­at­ive cook­ies n’ cream cheesecake.

DAY TWO

We chilled in the morn­ing tak­ing full advant­age of our 24hr Global Gos­sip access on wire­less (Wifi) no less! I can’t believe we can use wire­less in the moun­tains when it’s so hard to get else­where, bizarre! Not want­ing to strain James’ swollen knee from a sub­stan­tial knock on the bed­post in Cairns, we drove to the ‘MacK­en­zie Falls’ via an impress­ive view of the Grampi­ans. This par­tic­u­lar vista was in our view Aus­tralia lay­ing down the gaunt­let to New Zea­l­and for the most dra­matic landscape.

We pic­nicked back at Halls Gaps to save pen­nies and headed south towards War­re­nam­bool and the Great Ocean Road. There were plenty of amaz­ing rock-formations to see along the coast, includ­ing; ‘Lon­don Bridge’, ‘Loch & Gorge’, ‘Blowhole’, ‘Thun­der Caves’ and ulti­mately the ‘Twelve Apostles’.

As the light ebbed away, and clouds covered any evid­ence of sun­set, we aban­doned try­ing to reach the ‘Twelve Apostles’ until tomor­row and headed for our hostel in Prin­cetown. Hap­pily we had ‘The 13th Apostle’ hostel to ourselves. Sup­per was a reas­on­able pizza, a couple of rum & cokes and accom­pan­ied by the Olympic Games in a res­taur­ant come pub come shop come takeaway come bottle-shop come ice-cream par­lour over the road!

DAY THREE

In the morn­ing the ‘Twelve Apostles’ were the agenda. Pre­vi­ously known as the ‘Sow and Pig­lets’ (which James pre­ferred) there are in fact only six ‘Apostles’ still stand­ing. The ever evolving land­scape is con­stantly moul­ded by the relent­less ocean cre­at­ing and des­troy­ing these amaz­ing pil­lars of rock. The sea is impress­ive in itself. The clear Atlantic waves, blue with cold, pounds against the might of the caramel-coloured rock. The South­erly wind is bit­ing, even though tem­per­at­ures are in the mid-teens.

Snap­shot of us at the ‘Twelve Apostles’ taken by a fel­low Canon EOS trav­el­ler. I politely put my cam­era on ‘P’ and he put his on ‘green square’ for a recip­rocal snap­shot. Insulting.

James drove us along wind­ing coast, around cliffs and over creeks in between. We paid a visit to the Otaway Light­house, which was the first human set­tle­ment seen by early-settlers since leav­ing European shores. Stand­ing here since 1848 it is still in per­fect work­ing order even though no con­crete cements the bricks together. Once inside we were treated to a free private tour of its work­ings by the retired Light­house Keeper. Engin­eer­ing was built to last in those days and amaz­ingly I could still eas­ily manœuvre the heavy lights on the run­ners. The sur­round­ing park­land was home to the nat­ive koalas but unfor­tu­nately we were not to see one there.

Now for those who have heard of the ‘100 year storm’ or are closet ‘Point Break’, Keanu or Swayze fans, the next stop would be a must! I guess I must be a closet ‘surf bum’ so for me ‘Bells Beach’ was a child­hood dream real­ised. James was slightly bemused by my renewed excite­ment at watch­ing yet more surfers attempt to con­quer the per­fect wave on another Aus­sie beach. For me though this place was a chance to turn back time and step into movie-land and ima­gine strid­ing down the beach as a cool surf chick with a sexy surfer dude by your side! I’m look­ing for­ward to re-watching ‘Point Break’ soon and smiling.

Just one more mis­sion lay ahead before the day was out. Coast­ing by surf­ing centre of Torquay (Vic­toria) we had to take a photo to blog for Shaun (J’s surfer cousin) who emig­rates to Oz in Decem­ber and lives in Brix­ham, a short ferry ride from Torquay (Devon).

Photo achieved we jumped on the high­way and, like a fine art, nav­ig­ated through Mel­bourne into the sub­urb of St Kilda East without arguing over dir­ec­tions or get­ting entirely lost in the sea of bright lights. Await­ing us there with warmth and hos­pit­al­ity were Susan­nah and Rowan, a wel­come sight indeed.

Cesca

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