Great Ocean Road and final weekend in Melbourne

Early start to go collect the car and then headed off down towards Geelong and Torquay where the start of the Great Ocean Road is. Weather wasn't on our side though as it was grey and overcast.

From Torquay you head across a small peninsula for about 5 miles until, all of a sudden, the ocean greets you. The entrance is a wooden archway with the words 'Great Ocean Road' across the top. Just in case you didn't know.

The road winds its way up, down and around and is great fun to drive. We stopped a few times here and there to take pictures of the coast line but mainly just admired the views.

We stopped at Apollo Bay - which is about half way along the road to grab a drink (and a pee) and from there the road heads inland for a while before rejoining the ocean just before the twelve apostles.

The apostles are absolutely amazing - you really can't prepare yourself for how spectacular they look in real life - even with one of them having fallen down! Took a ton of photos before heading to the next stop which was Loch Ard Gorge. This is really a collection of gorges where the ship Loch Ard was wrecked some time in the late 1800s. There were all manner of geological formations there such as arches, stacks and a cool thing called a razorback ridge. I'll post up a picture when I can because it was too bizarre to describe and I probably lack the English skills too.

Next up was London Bridge which, just like the nursery rhyme, has fallen down, albeit only partially. Apparently it fell down in 1990 stranding two people. That would have been pretty cool if you'd got it on camera and a helicopter rescue too!

The final place we stopped at was a Grotto, with no Santa. Was quite pretty though with a rock pool under an arch.

We drove all the way back along the Great Ocean Road (with a dinner stop at Port Campbell). I think I scared Dave a little on the way as he was holding onto that handle thing you get above the doors in cars (I'm sure it has a technical name but who knows) with both hands at some point.

Got back to Melbourne at about 7ish and headed out to dinner with Caela and Irene to a fantastically-named restaurant called The Graham Hotel. Food was pretty spectacular too: Caela and I had Moroccan goat, Dave had blue-eye and Irene duck. Really nice too. Headed next door (i.e. the pub part) afterwards to meet yet more Canadians (and more bizarrely more that went to Queens (Dave's Uni)). Yet more Queens chat!

Friday - got up early to return the car and wandered through the Botanical Gardens which were very pretty, then through Melbourne Park and into Fitzroy Gardens where Captain Cook's cottage is. They bought it for 800 pounds in the early 1900s and it transported it from Yorkshire brick by brick. Tiny little place (thankfully only $4 entry fee) but really interesting even if they aren't actually sure he ever lived there. Mere details.

In the evening I dragged Dave from his sick bed to go and see a presentation in the Old Melbourne Gaol. We were taken round on a candlelit tour by Michael Gately (a real life hangman (played by an actor (obviously))) who told us some stories of the prisoners, told us about life in the Gaol and about the punishments. It was, quite frankly, a bit disappointing. Having done the tour a few days earlier I didn't learn that much new and absolutely no ghost stories. It was also hard to get any sense of ambiance with such a large group.

On Saturday Dave, Caela and I went to the MCG to see Fremantle Dockers play the Melbourne Demons. The seats were excellent and I can't tell you much about the game other than Melbourne won quite convincingly cos we got a bit drunk instead. Good fun though!

We even had plans to go out Saturday night that got cancelled cos we were a little worse for wear when we got back so we crashed and watched films then the FA Cup Final which was excellent!

Sunday we flew out to Perth and the journey goes on....