Day 27 - 13th Mar 2009

Another early start today as we needed to get to a nearby hostel for a 6:30am pickup for the Great Ocean Tour Trip which we had booked to take us to Adelaide. The trip was for 3 days and 2 nights and would take us down the Great Ocean Road and then up through the Grampians National Park to Adelaide. We got to the pickup point at exactly 6:30 but the tour bus wasn't there yet. Eventually at 6:50 after we had begun to get a little bit worried that the bus wasn't coming it turned up. We then made a few more pickups in the city until all 21 seats of the bus were full. Then leaving Melbourne behind us we headed south towards the Great Ocena Road.

First stop was at Torquay which is where the Great Ocean Road starts and also where there is a lot of surf shops. We spent some time looking round the shops and got a second breakfast from McDonalds.

Then it was on down the Great Ocean Road. First stop was Bell's Beach which is a famous surfing spot, but there weren't many surfers there. Then we stopped at the arch which commenerates the building of the road.

We stopped for lunch at a beach, which consisted of make your own sandwiches from stuff which the bus driver had bought from the supermarket. It was a nice spot and gave us a chance to chat to some of our travelling companions. They were a nice bunch and quite an international mix! I think the 21 were made up as follows (if I remember where everyone was from correctly): 3 English, 2 Irish, 2 Swedish, 2 Swiss, 5 Germans, 1 French, 2 Dutch, 2 Maltese and 2 Chinese! Of course everyone spoke English so communication wasn't too much of a problem.

After lunch we continued down the Great Ocean Road to Apollo Bay before leaving the Ocean to head inland to the Otway National Forest. On route we stopped and saw some Koala bears in the wild. They we just sat there in trees by the side of the road! They were very cute!

We continued to the forest where we did a short walk before getting back on the bus and taking the road back to the ocean side. We stopped to look at some large rock stacks in the Ocean. They were pretty impressive and the light was just right for looking at them.

Then it was on to Port Campbell where our accommodation was for that night. It was a small hostel right on the waterfront and our group filled the whole place apart from one other person who was staying there. We had a beer on the front porch while the tour guide cooked our dinner of Spag Bol. We had to eat it quickly as we needed to get back out to a different set of rock stacks called the 12 Apostles in time for sunset. We made it just in time and got some nice photos of the sun going down behind the rocks.

Then back to the hostel and a quick beer at the local pub with a few other people from the group before heading to bed.