memilesaway: Great Ocean Road-Trip

Finally, with one day delay we have made it to the Great Ocean Road. Unfortunately, Basti was not able come on friday because his flight was overbooked so he had to catch the flight on the next day early in the morning. For Saturday we rented a car and have driven down the coast for 600 km, past wonderful beaches and small coastal places. The road goes almost the whole way by the sea, sometimes directly on the beach, sometimes next to high cliffs.

Unfortunately, the weather on the day wasn't that good , however, this has not damaged whole trip. The highlight after nearly 300 km were the twelve apostles, a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the Port Campbell National Park. Unfortunately, that was the end of the untouched nature on the Great Ocean Road. The viewing platform of the apostles reminds rather of a fun park with helicopter flights, thousands of tourists and totally overcharged coffees. However, the rock formation itself is very impressive! Shortly before the apostles there are the Gipson steps. Here it is possibly to climpe down directly to the beach to experience the real size of the rocks. Nearly even more impressively than the famous apostles in my opinion are "Loch Ard Gorge". This small beach is separated by a small entrance of the sea. The whole scene has reminded my very strongly of the film "The Beach". Besides the bay there are other gigantic rocks in the sea. We had them almost for our selfs, maybe they are not that famouse like the apostles. The Great Ocean Road was my absolute highlight in Melbourne and surroundings!