The Great Ocean Road trip beckons as I lie in my overpriced room ($55 in a backpackers) at The Oslo Hotel in Melbourne. I am excited and desperate for some sleep as I have to meet the bus at 7 am. I don’t get much, instead I spend a fitful night fighting fleas and giant blood sucking bed bugs. I wake after only getting a few hours in, leave a snotty note under the management’s door, and rush down to the agreed meeting place. Luckily, I soon forget the giant red inflamed bites all over my body as I am met with a cheery and pleasant guide from Go West Tours, I also manage to score a seat at the front of the bus – with the best view.
With a 700 km drive ahead of us we leave the city and head west along the coast, listening to great stories and folklore about Melbourne and the areas we will be visiting. The first stop is the world famous Bell’s Beach which was the world’s first surfing reserve. Today the swell is only a fragment of its usual promise and handful of surfers float in the morning light gazing expectantly towards the sea. Our route then takes us along a rugged coastline with steep cliffs, bright blue sea and sandy beaches. The road is more than impressive and it winds its way high up onto the mountainside, snaking through the forest and back down again until it almost kisses the sandy edges and collects the spray from the rocks. We pass Torquay and Angelsea and stop for tea in Lorne, a popular holiday haven for families. We turn off the main route briefly at Kennet’s River to try and spot some of the local koala bears that have taken residence in the tall gums. We are also treated to a beautiful sighting of a crimson rosella, its plumage glowing against the pale eucalyptus bark. We head on to Mait’s Rest Rainforest and I instantly feel dwarfed by the giant myrtle beech trees, the most famous one being over 80 metres tall and 300 years old. Looking up, it disappears into the sunlight. With my tummy once again asking for food, we reach Apollo Bay and hurry around to find some lip-smacking fish and chips to gobble while gazing at the beach and all the happy holiday makers.
The second half of the trip is underway and we approach the Port Campbell National Park with the infamous 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge (which fell down in the early 1980s). Our tour guide, Damon, delights us with dramatic stories of crumbling limestone, historic shipwrecks and love stories with not-so-happy endings. The sights are plentiful and although my camera battery dies, I sit back and enjoy the country road home chatting to the guide and fellow travellers.
We reach Melbourne shortly after 9 pm and I realise I might be without accommodation, choosing to rather pay more than be devoured again over my already mutilated body. The manager at the Oslo is surprised but apologetic and after discovering a few other residents that are sporting the same bumps, I take the refund and head off to try and find alternative accommodation. Using a handy “˜empty bed’ website, I locate a motel which is way too far out of town, costs me $ 57 to get there by taxi so I book a train ticket and choose to leave Melbourne a day early.
Easy enough however, I get a seat on a Country Link train leaving the next morning back to Sydney and discover the joys of long distance train travel, affordable and relaxing. The conductors and stewards are very helpful and I am soon settled into a spacious seat near the window sipping hot chocolate and watching Victoria disappear as the train eats up the miles. The eleven hour journey passes through some beautiful but not unfamiliar looking countryside, as it closely resembles the Free State with promising agricultural havens and endless grassy plains. I arrive in Sydney just before sunset and am met by the happy, welcoming faces of my cousins and they whisk me off to Darlinghurst for some Musssaman curry and more crisp New Zealand wine. My last week is Australia is now upon me and I set about making some plans to explore the area around Sydney up and down the coast.
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