Well we haven't made it one travel day and we're deviating from our original plan! The initial plan was to do the EAST coast of Australia (Melborne to Cairnes), but we came across some information that made us make a little change and go due WEST...The Great Ocean Road. How could you miss something called “The Great Ocean Road?” So west we headed in our quaint little “campervan of fun.” For anyone checking out the map, the great ocean road starts more or less in Geelong and heads along the very southern coastline of the country to about Adelaide. For a history lesson the roadway was built as a memorial to Australia's involvement in World War 1. I think some Australian guy stubbed his toe while vacationing in Germany during the war, but my knowledge of Australians involvement in the war is pretty scant, so i could be a little off.
So after driving for a few hours we accidentally stumbled across something which was more or less equivalent to a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...Bell's Beach. Now your probably thinking Bells Beach sounds a little familiar, but you cant quite put your finger on it. Ok...Think Patrick Swayze...Think Keanu Reeves...Hrm. Yeah, thats right “Point Break.“ Now for those of you who haven't seen Point Break in the last 6 months (shame on you!) Bells Beach is in the very end of the movie where Patrick Swayze surfs the wave of the 20 year storm and dies! In all actuality it wasn't too much different than any other surf beach in the world, but you cant argue with its significant importance in world history! :)
Ok, so back to The Great Ocean Road. Take a look at the pictures to get the idea, but basically the entire coast is made up of sandstone which is VERY delicate, even to the touch. Because of this, the constant beating of the waves against the shore erodes the sand/rock away in very interesting shapes which are constantly changing and collapsing. The whole coast is more of less made of structures/caves/cliffs and most interestingly these tall islands, for lack of a better word, that just seem to pop out of the water. The most popular of which are called the “12 apostles.” Although later we learned from some local that there are actually only like 8 of them left because the rest all got swallowed up by the ocean over the last few years.
On our way back to Melborne (we had to retrace our path because a short cut through the outback seemed like a bad idea) we had horrible rainy weather so we decided to do some stuff a little further inland. One of the things we found was this cool place that had a rainforest (rainforest...yeah i know who'd thought rainforest here) walk, but part of the hike was on a suspended path up in the trees. It was actually pretty awesome, aside from the 1.6 million asian tourists that also decided to show up. Its a whole different perspective when you can do a hike through the forest and be 50-100 feet off the ground! They also had a little side path where there were dinosaur replica's scattered along the path. This was a riot, as you can see by some of my pictures!
A while back i put up the "great ocean road (pt2)" due to a memory card issue. Im gonna put up part one now so take a look if you want. Its gonna be a bit out of order...my bad ;)
