Si's Year Out! (Plus Europe! Plus Morocco!): The Great Ocean Road

Had an excellent 5 days driving the great ocean road!

The road is supposed to be the biggest war memorial in the world because it was built by the servicemen who returned from WW1 and WW2. The road links up all the beautiful seaside villages which were previously only accessible by boat or rough winding tracks. The road took 16 years to build and it was all done using picks, shovels and dynamite.

My first stop was Torquay (named after the place in England apparently), which is a big surf town and is where Rip Curl and Quicksilver started out. There are some amazing surfing beaches there.....the water was so warm that I just spent the first day surfing! Woke up early the next morning and did some more surfing at Bells beach which is where the surf classic competition is held every easter. Even though the waves were perfect, there were only like 5 people surfing it!

It wasn't a particularly nice afternoon so after I got out I went to the surfworld museum. They have the most amazing collection of surfboards there, from wacky painted boards to crazy shaped boards. There was even a guy shaping boards by hand.

Later that afternoon I finally left Torquay for Anglesea, the next town. The town was like all the towns I would encounter, full of overpriced souvenir shops, restaurants and hotels....so I carried on towards Aireys Inlet. Found a nice beach half way so chilled there til dark and got an early night.

The next day was really sunny so I got woken up at about 7am by the heat from the sun on the car! Went for a morning surf but the waves were a bit small so I carried on driving to Aireys Inlet. There is a lighthouse there so I went and had a look at that, was pretty cool. The beach in front of it was really rocky (hence the need for the lighthouse I guess!) and it was low tide so I went and stood out on the rocks for a bit in the sea and was amazed by the amount of fish and squid I could see cruising around....

Headed towards Lorne after that. That area is really good for bushwalking and I kept seeing all these signs for walks so I thought I'd give it a go. Unfortunately, it was beginning to get dark so I parked up, looked at the map and picked a short walk. It also said that I should tell someone I was going, wear hiking boots, warm clothes, a hat and take some food & drink..... well, I didnt have anyone to tell and it would be getting dark in about an hour so I decided that shorts, t-shirt and flipflops would do.... I had my cap though so 1 out of 5 wasn't bad! The walk was to a place called Sherock Falls. Halfway there there was a sign saying 'watch out for tiger snakes' (!) and I was wearing shorts....but hey, I got there without dying. Sherock 'Falls' was more of a trickle than a waterfall but oh well, it looked nice! As I headed off I noticed a sign saying watch out for kangaroos....it was starting to get dark so I thought 'maybe I'll see one if I keep an eye out'......so I went round the next bend and had to slam on the breaks cos there were 3 kangaroos sitting in the middle of the road! For the next km or so there were kangaroos and koalas everywhere, just about managed to avoid killing any but it was close!

So thats about half way and I'm running out of internet time! I'll post the rest in a couple of days.....

Fishos beach in Torquay

Some cool surfboards

The view from the back of the car as I sat eating fish 'n chips in between surf sessions.....its a hard life!

Jan Juc beach

Winkipop beach in the morning, miles of beautiful beach and no people!

The gateway for the great ocean road. This was where they used to charge a toll to fund the building of the rest of the road. Its not actually at the beginning of the road!