Great Ocean Road Pt 1

Since sunday I've driven 600 miles - looking at a road map of Australia with my UK head on is difficult. For example, got up on Monday at a place called Robe and thought - just pop to the next village on the coast for a coffee - it was 30 miles away.

So left Adelaide on Sunday and drove down the limestone coast - south of Adelaide. Arrived in a place called Robe for the overnight stop. If you look on the road map you will see that its a great big long road slightly inland from the coast. And I can vouch for the fact that it is a long long straight road - bloody boring actually.

Monday decided to head towards the 'Great Ocean Road' www.greatoceanrd.org.au It seems to be the main tourist feature of these parts. Once again drove another 250 miles to get here with a few stops on the way. Nothing to report on the various towns I stopped in. Got to the GOR at a place called Peterborough which seems to be the start (Peterborough is tiny) and then drove along the coast to Port Douglas - where I stayed Monday and Tuesday night. Port Douglas is a very cute little stop with an inlet and sheltered harbour and a few small surf beaches. Well worth the days rest.

So Tuesday having driven for 2 long days I spent the morning lapping up the sun on the beach (reading) and then went a drive along the coast to see the tourist spots. This part of the GOR is a soft limestone coast which is being pounded by the sea and wearing it away. So there are a number of interesting landscapes - the most famous being 'the 12 Apostles' London Bridge and 'the Bay of Islands' - all featuring limestone outcrops in the sea. Very picturesque (but not unique).

The bloody flies are back though. Having had a week of no insects since leaving Darwin they are now back with a vengeance. On my day along the coast yesterday I took to wearing a face net - which looked stupid but I lost count of the number of people who asked me where I got it from by last night.

And the 10quid tent. Gets 4 out 5 so far. Thats because on Monday night the temp outisde dropped below 10C and it was bloody cold - and condensation was all over the inside of the tent. Took me back to the early days of camping with the scouts when tents were only (at best) and attempt to reduce the effects of bad weather.

Wednesday morning now and am in Appollo Bay which is still on the GOR (although to get here I've driven 100km along the GOR yet have been about 8 miles inland of the Ocean , think the Aussies have applied a liberal description of Ocean Road to that section).

A funny story I read the other day. Up to the early 60s the Aussies had a white only immigration policy , which they applied as a whites only english speaking policy. So after the 2nd world war 2 million people emmigrated here. So the caring Aussies gave them a dictation test to ensure that they would become good citizens , the dictation test being 50 words given in a European language. So a famous Czech author applied for immigration (I can't remember his name but thats my ignorance of literature showing through). Anyway he ticked many of the boxes and spoke 7 languages. So the caring Aussies gave him his dictation test in Scottish Gaelic - which he failed so they wouldn't allow him in.

The bloody flies are even buzzing around here in the shop. See you later in the week when I'll either be in Torquay (home of the Aussie surf Industry), Ballarat (home of the gold rush of 1851) or Melbourne (the greatest city in Australia they say).