The Great Ocean Road

steve_irwin · Joined: 23 Feb 2005 Posts: 30

If you're ever down in Victoria province (Australia) and have a car (or willing to rent one), take a drive along the Great Ocean Road. Located along the southern Victorian coastline (west of Melbourne and Geelong), it goes along several hundred miles of spectacular scenery.

You'll drive past some of the wildest seas (since its facing the southern sea), not to mention icy winds straight from Antarctica. Some features include the 12 Apostles (12 enormous rocks rising from the seas), the now-broken London Bridge (an archway linking two rocks, which collapsed recently).

On the inland side of the Great Ocean Road are lush rainforests, and even a few waterfalls. If you ever go past, check out the Otway Fly, a large overhead pass that takes you over the rainforest.

You'll definitely need a car for this one, since no trains go past (especially if you're planning to tour the road).

David · Joined: 04 Apr 2004 Posts: 162

That sounds amazing, Steve.
I get the impression there are some long stretches of road where there is little or no sign of man (except the road). Are there some neat little towns along the way?

steve_irwin · Joined: 23 Feb 2005 Posts: 30

Yep, along a lot of stretches you won't find any signs of civilization. Except for the road itself, which is busier than most country roads (about 1 car every mile, which is busy in rural Australia).

There are some great seaside towns and resorts along the way. Places like Apollo Bay (surfing). Theres also been hundreds of shipwrecks along the coast (thats why its called "Shipwreck Coast"), and a lot of towns have museums dedicated to the wrecks. One of the towns, Warrnambool (spelling?) even has a McDonalds restaurant set in an imitation 18th century ship.

Theres also a town, I can't actually remember the name, which has an actual historical "village", including a laser show about one of the ships that hit the coast (literally!) and went down. Its pretty famous though, so you'll find it in Melbourne.

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David · Joined: 04 Apr 2004 Posts: 162

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