Road Trip Day One [GOR]

I've been wanting to visit the Great Ocean Road for sometime now. The last time I wanted to go something came up so the plan was cancelled. But this time, we acted swiftly. Before the thought of going was set into our mind, everything was booked, confirmed and paid before anyone can back out. And off we went on our two day road trip to the Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island XD.

We rented our car from Budget . We only knew what car we were going to get on the day we collect the car. To our surprise they gave us the new Toyota Corolla =D. We were all very satisfied with the car.

Our lovely car for two days...

Our journey started at 9am, 25th of March.

Jon

SH


and HY [^^" just realised we din take a pic of her driving...] were our drivers for the trip.

We left Clayton around 9.20am. None of us have driven pass Caulfield before so our navigator [SH] planned out our road quite carefully a few days beforehand. In the end, we got onto the right highway without any mistakes [yay~]. Turned out that it's actually quite easy....

Through Toorak Road

Onto Westgate Bridge

And off to Geelong we go

[Disclaimer: The above description is a very simplified version of our route... Please research a bit more if you do wanna drive there... =P]

It took us around an hour an a half to get to Geelong. The day started out quite gloomy but it eventually cleared as we drove further. =D It was about another hour drive before we reach Torquay. Torquay, the official start of the Great Ocean Road, is a popular holiday town and it is also a surf town. All the big surfing brands are there. You can also get surfing lessons if you're up for it.

We stopped over at Bells Beach.
The view was spectacular. It's been so long since I last saw views like these... Driving along GOR reminded me alot of New Zealand...



We didn't go down to the beach cuz it looked like there was some surfing competition going on down at Bells Beach that day.


Our next stop was Point Addis, a Marine National Park.




We then passed by Anglesea,
Aireys Inlet, and before we got into Fairhaven, we paid the Split Point Lighthouse a visit.
It's not a huge lighthouse to see but you can do some bush walking, enjoy a coffee or two, or go to the beach from here.


After our visit to the lighthouse, we realised we didn't have much time left.. As the roads can get quite dangerous, we had aimed to get out of the Great Ocean Road before sunset. After realising that, we had no choice but to skip pass most of the scenic views =(

We continued our journey passing by Moggs Creek, and stopped by the Memorial Arch to take some more pictures =).
Lunch was at the beach. As our trip was a budget trip, we brought our homemade sandwiches, packaged drinks along. Not very luxurious but it was all good =D






Our journey continued after lunch. Lorne was the next town that we passed by.


After Lorne, the sky turned darker,


and the roads got whindier (dat even a word?).


We passed by more towns but didn't stop at any of it. The journey from Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles made me a little car sick. From Apollo Bay onwards, the roads are more inland and all I could see were trees, cows, horses, sheeps, and 无尽的草原...



We finally reached the 12 Apostles around 5 plus. That's about.... 8 hours that we've traveled [including stopping, taking pics, etc etc...]!!! For those who expect to see 12 Apostles at the 12 Apostles, you'll be disappointed. According to Lonely Planet, it's a myth to why it was named the 12 Apostles. Today, only seven of the Apostles can be seen. It's either they named it that way to get a more poetic license or five of it has been consumed by the sea. ^^" So peeps, you might want to consider going to see the apostles soon before it disappears~







We rushed to our last destination as it was getting dark and it looked like it was about to rain.




I am amazed at the wonders of nature... [Like always, I'm getting annoyed at the speetd at the pictures are uploading.. So even though there are more pics to post up I'm gonna stop for now =P]

Jon drove 5 hours non-stop back to Clayton [applause applause].

By the way, this is how much we spent on petrol...
We spent RM150 on petrol ='( "sum tong sum tong"

Everyone was dead tired by the time we got home. But we still managed to play a few games of bridge [our newest favourite past time] before we headed off to our beds XD.

Tha just about wraps up our Great Ocean Road Trip. I'll try to post our Phillip Island trip soon [when I'm in the mood...].

Finally, click here if you want to read bout Jon's view of our trip~

Nitez~!