Like this:

Great Ocean Road

It was late in October of 2009, when our friends in India were celebrating Diwali we had planned for a road trip on Great Ocean Road in State of Victoria, Australia. I had seen Europe only in Bollywood busters under the banner of Yash Chopra and Karan Johar’s of the world. But I am sure The Great Ocean Road is a total paisa vasool (Worth its money) in true sense of the word and an amazing experience no less than Europe as seen in Bollywood flicks. It is one of World’s great scenic coastline drives that is no less than a fairytale and is a must visit place during your Australia trip.

Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road follows the coastline of Victoria’s south-west, stretching 243 Kms from Torquay, just south of Geelong, to Allansford, just east of Warrnambool. To give you a little insight about its history, it was constructed to provide work for returning soldiers and dedicated as a Memorial to those killed in the First World War. Parts of the Great Ocean Road runs around steep coastal mountains which pass through many small towns where mountains meet the sea. The road runs along cliff tops, up to breathtaking headlands, down onto the edge of beaches, across river estuaries and through lush rain forests, wineries,  offering panoramic views at every turn. What more can you ask for? Isn’t this is perfect for a long drive !!

Click for more Clicks from Road

On the Great Ocean road there are a number of lookout zones where you can halt and marvel at the scenic beauty of nature. Various colors of sky, sea and flora around is simply amazing. Do remember to watch your heart so that it does not skip beats, cos i did skip a few. You have the sea on one side which has different shades of blue, purple, grey and on the other side you have hill tops covered with thick dense forest displayed for you in shades of green.

Melbourne here we come

Click for more Melbourne Pics

we boarded a Virgin Blue flight from Sydney and  reached Melbourne  a night before we were to begin our excursion. Next morning we met up with an extended group of friends in city,  rented cars – our mode of transportation for next two days. It took us a while to complete the paper work and other formalities and we left city only by 10:30 am which was late by our earlier target of leaving city by 8 am!! . And I have to mention this – that we also got stuck in a JAM i.e. a TRAFFIC JAM on the highway just outside Melbourne while heading towards Princes Highway. It reminded me so much of Delhi by-pass when you are heading towards GT Karnal road

On Road

View Larger Map

The journey was comfortable and the day was sunny and bright unlike the prediction as it was expected to rain over the weekend. It is very unlikely for predictions to go wrong in this part of the world. But we were lucky that our weekend trip did not get washed out. Thanks to the rain Gods.

Click for more Clicks from Road

Once on the Princess highway, the road started at Torquay, which is a short distance south of Geelong. We had our bit of misadventures on the way as we missed a couple of turns, thanks to our guide –GPS who misguided us once in a while and kept “recalculating” a fresh route for us. We got a little lost enroute in the cities like Bellarine, Geelong but the blessing in disguise was that we passed Nadoos and then treated ourselves with chips and periperi.

Lorne and Erskine WaterFall

Gang in the Shadows

Our final destination for day 1 was small beautiful town “Lorne”. By the time we reached it was around 13:30 and we were starving. After debating for a while over limited options available we feasted ourselves with few portions of Pizza, chips, coke from an joint “Pizza Pizza” run by an Indian. After filling our tankers, we checked in to Mantra Erskine beach resort quickly dumped our belongings in our room and were on the driveway again.

Click for more pics from Erskine Water Fall

Now, we were off to visit the Erskine Falls. Erskine Falls are at the end of Erskine Falls Road 10km north east of Lorne. There is a viewing point above the falls and a walking track amidst the rain forest which leads to the base of the falls. The fall cascade over one of the highest drops in the Otways. Erskine falls is surrounded by lush green rain forest and the pathway all the way down to the waterfall is slippery. It is a beautiful, quiet and peaceful place for a family outing like a picnic or a barbecue. We however had gone there for none of these

Loved this Tree Stump at the Entrance of Fall

Note on Shops at Lorne

We came back to Lorne late in evening to discover that most of the eating joints were closed as we went from shop to shop looking for coffee. We realized that in spite of many restaurants and cafes in Lorne, there are very few options for Vegetarians and the eating joints are generally closed from 3 to 6 pm and most of the open restaurants will shut shop by 9:30 pm and there were others where we need to have prior booking for dinner.

Gang NOT in the Shadows!

So, in case we wished to have dinner we should have it before the designated time. This looked unlikely as we had late lunch and none of us were in the mood to have pizza again. So, we went to the ONLY retail outlet available at Lorne Foodworks and grabbed ready to eat meals and stuff which gets cooked with minimum time and effort. Then we closed day 1 with dinning, wining and dinner, a lazy stroll along the sea shore and then it was time to hit the bed.

Sunrise and Sculptures

Click For more Pics of Beautiful Morning at Lorne

Click for More Sculptures

Day 2 was early wake up call to catch the sun when it was still young. We realized that we succeeded in our quest when we reached the sea shore around 6’o clock in the morning. After spending close to an hour capturing the various shades of a beautiful Sunday morning on the sea shore we moved ahead to view the Lorne Sculpture exhibition 09 which were spread from Mantra Erskine Beach resort to the foreshore walk along the sea coast. It was joy to watch so many beautiful pieces of art made out of unexpected non-traditional materials including  found and recycles objects and in unbelievable shapes and sizes. There were around 50 sculptures displayed at different locations.  Inspite of a map guiding us, we were not successful in capturing all due to scarcity of time but whatever we could, it was worth the effort.

On Road Again

We grabbed a quick breakfast and were on our way to the final destination of twelve apostles. On the way we witnessed a number of rivers merging into the sea, however by now our initial excitement of watching the sea had settled down a bit. Few Kilometers away from Lorne we stopped at one of the many ship wreck point; The rock formations on this look out were splendid and if it was not for the 12 apostles, we would not have moved ahead from this place.

Sid the Stunt Man

Sid even tried some stunts which were nicely captured by Abhinav

Koala

Cute Innocent Koala .. click to watch more pics

We took a de tour and drove some extra miles in hope to view Otway lighthouse, however entry to lighthouse was not free and we were running out of time we decided to duck it. On our way back from  he light House which meets the main road we saw a koala on the road who was patient enough to pose for some spectacular photographs. The only disappointing thought is that in spite of viewing the sign boards “drive slow, Kangaroo ahead” at a number of places during our drive, we were not fortunate enough to spot one.

Twelve Apostles

12 Apostles .. Click for more..

The first sight of the twelve apostles and the disappointment did a disappearing act. They were simply marvelous. These are striking and dramatic natural limestone and sandstone rock formations. These apostles have been created by erosion from waves and rain over a period of time.

We also headed downwards to the Gibson Steps and the Gibson Beach to have a closer look at the twelve apostles. The Gibson steps

Sid struggling to climb to reach Gibson Stairs

do not take you all the way to the beach. They leave you just one or two steps above the coast. The waves here cover the entire coastline and can leave you stranded if the tide comes in close to where you are standing. Sid tried his stunts here too and jumped down to reach the beach and later struggled to climb and reach stairs…

Return Journey

Baaaa Baaaaa

Great Ocean Road was  like a dream world, believe you me it really did. As all dreams come to an end, this also came to an end and a bit too soon when we found ourselves heading back the Princess Highway, taking us to Geelong from where we joined the M1 to Melbourne. It really was an awesome experience and worth

an effort to drive through Great ocean road as the scenery was spectacular and there were plenty of great places and look outs to stop over along the way.

Max

Last but not the least, how can I forget “Max”, a new member in our family? He is the wonder dog of The Smith Family (Organization where I work as a volunteer). At Smith Family, whosoever goes for a vacation Max goes with them for an excursion. The deal is that you click pictures of max and Max is ready to Play…. So he played and we played too along with him…

Max The Wonder Dog

*Once again Thanks to Bhavna for putting the Post Together