Friday, February 20, 2004
My next installment...
and this time its all about my road trip to Adelaide along the great ocean road...
Id wanted to do the Great Ocean Road but wasnt really sure how to go about it - i wasnt particularly bothered about going to Adelaide and i didnt want to do it as part of a journey to Perth (cos im not going that way) - I had thought about doing a day trip which looked ok
Then we met The Welsh
That is Emma and Lisa who showed up at the St Kilda Inn and have been creating madness ever since...
John, James and I met them first one night when they had just got back from the pub
The following morning they wanted to make use of the hire car they had for one more day and were looking for suggestions
I suggested Ramsay Street - since I hadnt been yet and thought it would be a good way to get there - Tim suggested following the tour bus which left from down the road (the tour itself costs $25 which frankly seems like a rip off)
Anyway we got in the car along with James and drove down to find the Neighbours bus in their bright yellow car
It was fairly obvious we were following the van to Pin Oak Court (Ramsay St) not least because we had to run about 4 red lights to keep up with the van but eventually we got there and had a lovely look round
Its a lot smaller than it looks on TV but we all had our photos taken outside the Robinsons and Madges old house and Lou's
we then followed the van thinking it would take us to the studios or preferably Lou's pub
The driver had definitley cottoned on by this stage - not least because we waved at him and took his photo - we followed for a little way before he drove us round a roundabout 3 times and then pulled in to a petrol station to lose us
So The Welsh are up for a laugh and when i realised they were hiring a camper van to do the Ocean Road i jumped at the chance to go with them - the group was expanded by Tim and Rads who also wanted to come so we had a group of 5
We had all been to the Big Day Out together previously and had a great time so i fully expected a week on the road to be a fun adventure
We ordered a 6 berth Camper van from Apollo and picked it up from the depot on the Thursday
We faffed around for some time in Melbourne - getting lost and actually going back to where we had set off from at one stage but eventually we found the right road and ended up at Torquay in a campsite at the start of the Great Ocean Road
The following day we stopped off at 3 beaches on the drive, Torquay Beach was where we stopped for breakfast (having woken up late we had to get out of the campsite before they charged us for an extra night)
Bells Beach was the second. It has a reputation as one of the best surf beaches in the world and is where the film Point Break was filmed - when we visited though there had been a storm the night before and the place was covered in weeds and was particularly unattractive and the sea was dirty.
The third beach however was fab. Massive, with clear water and nice waves that werent too big to piss about in with our frisbee and football
That night we stayed in Lorne and had a barbeque in the campsite (Kangeroo Kebabs were lovely)
We met some random Aussies in the van next to us who wanted to join in on our drinking games (we had spent the afternoon writing up a list of forfeits)
When we had all made sufficient tits of ourselves we headed off to the beach (in the pitch black)
The next day on the road was a sightseeing day - the most scenic part of the Great Ocean Road along with the most sights - the 12 Apostles - basically rocks in the sea from where the cliff had eroded, The Arch (does what it says on the tin) and London Bridge which was a big island just off the coast where the connecting "bridge" had actually fallen down some years ago - leaving a couple of people stranded...
That night we stayed in Warnambool where we had fish and Chips, went to an Irish pub and played lots of cards
Im going to leave it there for today cos im getting a bit tired and not feeling very inspired to write this (and i dont think im doing it justice)
speak soon
and this time its all about my road trip to Adelaide along the great ocean road...
Id wanted to do the Great Ocean Road but wasnt really sure how to go about it - i wasnt particularly bothered about going to Adelaide and i didnt want to do it as part of a journey to Perth (cos im not going that way) - I had thought about doing a day trip which looked ok
Then we met The Welsh
That is Emma and Lisa who showed up at the St Kilda Inn and have been creating madness ever since...
John, James and I met them first one night when they had just got back from the pub
The following morning they wanted to make use of the hire car they had for one more day and were looking for suggestions
I suggested Ramsay Street - since I hadnt been yet and thought it would be a good way to get there - Tim suggested following the tour bus which left from down the road (the tour itself costs $25 which frankly seems like a rip off)
Anyway we got in the car along with James and drove down to find the Neighbours bus in their bright yellow car
It was fairly obvious we were following the van to Pin Oak Court (Ramsay St) not least because we had to run about 4 red lights to keep up with the van but eventually we got there and had a lovely look round
Its a lot smaller than it looks on TV but we all had our photos taken outside the Robinsons and Madges old house and Lou's
we then followed the van thinking it would take us to the studios or preferably Lou's pub
The driver had definitley cottoned on by this stage - not least because we waved at him and took his photo - we followed for a little way before he drove us round a roundabout 3 times and then pulled in to a petrol station to lose us
So The Welsh are up for a laugh and when i realised they were hiring a camper van to do the Ocean Road i jumped at the chance to go with them - the group was expanded by Tim and Rads who also wanted to come so we had a group of 5
We had all been to the Big Day Out together previously and had a great time so i fully expected a week on the road to be a fun adventure
We ordered a 6 berth Camper van from Apollo and picked it up from the depot on the Thursday
We faffed around for some time in Melbourne - getting lost and actually going back to where we had set off from at one stage but eventually we found the right road and ended up at Torquay in a campsite at the start of the Great Ocean Road
The following day we stopped off at 3 beaches on the drive, Torquay Beach was where we stopped for breakfast (having woken up late we had to get out of the campsite before they charged us for an extra night)
Bells Beach was the second. It has a reputation as one of the best surf beaches in the world and is where the film Point Break was filmed - when we visited though there had been a storm the night before and the place was covered in weeds and was particularly unattractive and the sea was dirty.
The third beach however was fab. Massive, with clear water and nice waves that werent too big to piss about in with our frisbee and football
That night we stayed in Lorne and had a barbeque in the campsite (Kangeroo Kebabs were lovely)
We met some random Aussies in the van next to us who wanted to join in on our drinking games (we had spent the afternoon writing up a list of forfeits)
When we had all made sufficient tits of ourselves we headed off to the beach (in the pitch black)
The next day on the road was a sightseeing day - the most scenic part of the Great Ocean Road along with the most sights - the 12 Apostles - basically rocks in the sea from where the cliff had eroded, The Arch (does what it says on the tin) and London Bridge which was a big island just off the coast where the connecting "bridge" had actually fallen down some years ago - leaving a couple of people stranded...
That night we stayed in Warnambool where we had fish and Chips, went to an Irish pub and played lots of cards
Im going to leave it there for today cos im getting a bit tired and not feeling very inspired to write this (and i dont think im doing it justice)
speak soon
