I'd been once before, where I saw the 12 apostles, london bridge, went camping in the woods, saw a few beaches and some nice coastal towns, but this one was much better!
12 Apostles
I finished work at 6 on Friday so we didnt leave until late! We drove straight down to Port Campbell, which is about 2 or 3 hours drive, and the plan was to work our way back on the GOR to Melbourne. We didnt book accomodation so in the car we rang a hostel and said we should be there before midnight. The manager there thought we were taking the piss but he waited up for us anyway. When we got there, we saw the hostel was brand new and there was like 3 other guests! The 1 pub down there was closed so the manager broke the rules for us and let us drink in the main area. We stayed up drinking with him and another guest, who told us of this little hidden lookout that nobody knows about except the locals! The 12 Apostles are freestanding lumps of rock which obviously used to be connected to the land until the ocean eroded underneath it and it collapsed. Well, this secret spot was an "apostle" that was still connected and as it wasnt a tourist spot, there was no fences blocking off the dangerous parts! So off we went down to this area. I reckon at the skinniest point, you had around a metre either side before u fell off the edge! One slip on the dirt and u were gone!! Very dangerous! We all walked out to the edge anyway and as we looked back we could see 2 caves, 1 on our right which was a bog standard normal cave, but the one on the left was huge! The cave was literally the size of the whole cliff!! Like if you were standing above it on the edge of that cliff, you'd only have 2 metres of dirt below ya at most! I reckon thats gonna collapse soon!
London Bridge Before
London Bridge After
anyway, we left there and drove down the Great Ocean Road back towards Melbourne and stopped in Apollo Bay. First place we went to was the local pub! We hd a pint and asked staff there did they know of any accomodation. They said they had a room upstairs for 6 people. We decided to take that. There was a live act in the pub, a one Josie James. She was actually staying in the bar too so when she finished her gig we all stayed up drinking til late. She was telling us how she used to have a record deal, which was pretty cool. Anyway, I got pissed drunk and had the worst hangover ever on the sunday!
We left the pub early at like 9am and went onwards. We went to some koala cafe where there was lots of wild koalas just sitting in the trees, including one that was on a small tree that you could touch or and feed eucalyptus trees. There was also these red parrots that you could feed seeds from your hand. I had one on each shoulder at one stage, and felt like a serious pirate!
and as per my promise last week, i got a facedown picture with said parrots!!!After that, we drove along the windy roads of the GOR and had to stop every few minutes coz i thought i was gonna puke!! But i didnt! wooh! We then went to Bells Beach where we saw about 100 kangaroos in a field just hopping around, which was cool! I'd seen them in zoo's and i'd eaten a few of them, but i'd never seen them in the wild! We also went to see the lighthouse from "Round the Twist" where you can usually see whales at this time of the year. we didnt tho!
It was an excellent weekend, even if i was in bits on sunday! I had to come straight home and play a soccer match too! Killer!
I'll try get photos up soon!