nesohu | 
06 27th, 2009| 
One of the most popular tourist attractions in Victoria, we reserve the Great Ocean Road (GOR) trip for the last day. Most of the day is spent inside the bus but thankfully AATKing’s driver-cum-guide Tony (a.k.a. Collin’s Dad) is very amusing.
The first stop Torquay - a small weekend town approx 10km outside GOR. We have morning tea at a corner café where they serve Scones and Devonshire Tea/Coffee. There’s nothing much there as the shops are still closed.
12 minutes from Torquay town is a place call Bell’s Beach. It’s a good place for surfing, & from the cliffs, we can see a lot of surfers waiting for the wave to come. For the next 2 hours, we have a couple of 5-minute photo-stops to stretch our legs. That’s one of the problems about travelling in groups; you covered a lot of grounds, but limited time on each stop.
Had our lunch at Apollo Bay Hotel. This place serves normal western lunch – Fish ’n’ Chips & Salads. Despite lunch is on our own expense, we have an option to eat in or have takeaways. Getting back on the road, we snoozed until Tony woke us up when we reached Otway National Park. On both sides of the road, we can clearly see Koalas hanging from the trees in their natural wild habitat. The numbers are more compared to those in the sanctuary.
Before we reached the 12 apostles, Tony played us a VCD explaining the highlight of the tour. But when we reach, we’re rather disappointed to see only 7 ½ left. It’s cold and windy, but being there when the sun’s shining from the side – amazing.
The bus took us back a few kilometers to a place call Loch Ard Gorge. Historically, this is the place of shipwreck in June 1st, 1878. All but two of the fifty-one passengers and crew perished - Tom Pearce, a ship’s apprentice and Eva Carmichael, an Irishwoman immigrating with her family, both of whom were 19 years of age. 131 years later, both of us wrecked our camera while shooting under the strong winds.
We went back to Port Campbell for a short afternoon tea before visiting our final stop – London Bridge. That’s like the last stop we have before we have a 3-hour journey back to Melbourne. Remember the nursery rhyme “London Bridge is falling down, falling down…” I think it’s a miracle that people c.1744 knows about the collapse that happens 246 years later.
On the trip back, Tony played a movie of “The man on the Snowy River”. It’s just the movie we need if we want to get to sleep fast. Tony narrates interesting information about the GOR 80% of the trip, and it’s good for us to understand this memorial for those who sacrificed during the First World War.
After having a simple dinner at Hungry Jacks (again) near Southern Cross Station, we board the Sky Bus to the airport. It’s been a really short trip to Melbourne & Tasmania. Thanks to our guides Irene & Sherlyn, we have a thrill~! Looking forward to our next group outing. – Bali 2009.
