Great Ocean Road Day 1

 The plan was to rent a car after we are done with Melbourne, go to Adelaide seeing the sights on the Great Ocean Road and the leaving the car in Adelaide and staying there for a couple of weeks. We abandoned the plan for three reasons.

1. The longer we stayed in Melbourne, the closer we got to the date where I was to leave Australia because the three months of my visa were up. So in the end there was very little time left, to stay in Adelaide.

2. We didn't find a car through the car relocation services for the days we wanted to. That would be much cheaper than the normal prices for renting a car.

3. We had friends coming over from Germany. They did their own thing but we would miss them entirely if we went to Adelaide.

So we decided to do a trip with Ride Tours. Apart from being cheap and having a funny website, the company boasted with two advantages over competitors. They took two days to do the trip. Some companies offered one-day trips and they thought it was too rushed. And on the first day they went for the end of the Great Ocean Road and worked their way backwards in order to avoid the crowds of pretty much any other company. As it turns out, both of those were smart moves.

This is where we had cookies and tea but it is not the village I am going to talk about in the next paragraph.

So off we go, too early in the morning and we drove for three "boring" hours (that is a quote from our guide) to the city at the end of the Great Ocean Road. Diana can't cope with sleep deprivation so she slept almost all the way through. On our way we came through a village which consisted approximately of 8 buildings. One of those was a police station because obviously  less than a dozen families can't be trusted to not kill each other (probably with friendliness) in Australia. And then there were two churches next to each other. Yes.

Logan's Beach

Eventually we arrived in Warrnambool. It's just as difficult to write as Würrtemberg. Or was it Wurttemberg? Whatever, we went through to arrive at our first "real" destination which is Logan's Beach. No relation to Wolverine. In the winter, it's a place where whales can be seen. In the summer months, the company took it off their program but there were some people who wanted it back in because it is a nice beach, so we went there even without the whales.

Then we went to the supermarket to get some food. Next stop: Tower Hill.

Tower Hill

Tower Hill is an inactive volcano that was replanted with native trees. It was a nice contrast to the beaches although you could still see the ocean from the point where we climbed up. We also saw a koala and some emus. We were told the emus are brash and will come at us to get our food, but ours were shy. Didn't even want to take a photo with me. Is it because I look like a terrorist?

Bay of Islands

So Tower Hill was to the west of Warrnambool which I copypasted right now because I don't want to go into the effort of typing it. The Great Ocean Road was to the east. We went through the town again and officially started our trip on the Road and reached the Bay of Islands. It was beautiful but I remember nothing of its history.

Bay of Martyrs

Next was the Bay of Martyrs. The downside is that the place has a grim history. It's where they let Aboriginies fall off a cliff because the human race sometimes sucks.

We did a break there long enough for some of us to swim. I consider this to be the most beautiful beach I ever had a swim. The water was very cold but I got used to it quickly. Bonus points for the fact that there were only three people in the water including me and the visuals and sound of the waves were quiet and calming. As it should be.

The Grotto

The Grotto is also more impressive in the winter than in the summer. What gives? Apparently the waves fill up the grotto through the hole you see in the photo and when it is full the pressure of the next wave results in the water being shot up like a fountain. Although we didn't see all that, it was still one of the most beautiful stop of our tour and I made my favourite photo of Diana and me there.

London Bridge

The London Bridge is a structure that's impressive for sure and I don't know why but it left me completely cold. The part on the left was also part of the bridge up until a few years ago if you must know.

After the London Bridge we went to the hostel we were going sleep in later but only for dinner. Diana cleaned the meat from the bones of the chicken for me because I don't like touching bones with my fingers or fork (or because I am a big child, whichever you prefer). We had to eat fast because we had to be at the 12 Apostles by sunset.

12 Apostles by sunset

On the way to the Apostles our tour guide explained to us how they got their name. It boils down to a tourism marketing department trying out different names until this one stuck. Not only is this story completely boring in itself, it gets worse. Apparently there originally were 14 stacks in close proximity, so in order to legitimise the number 12, they gave a different name to two of them. After two of the stacks collapsed, they didn't reintergrate the two other ones, so now there are only 8 stacks that are called 12 Apostles and then another 2 Piglets. What the hell did the two stacks do to you? That's so unfair! I still get angry when I think about it.

We waited there for a while to see the pinguins coming out of the water and they came but not in the numbers we hoped and by the time they did appear, it was too dark to see them.  After the Apostles we went back to the hostel but much slower than we were driving before because it was dark and you can't see the animals crossing the roads that well.

Sleep.