The Great Ocean Road

There are some things that just cannot be laughed at - you just stare and say 'Wow'... The Great Ocean Road Trip HAS to be one of the beautiful journeys that the world has to offer. I first started writing a 'funny man' account of the trip. I tried and laboured for a couple of days, and realized that I simply could not do it that way!

The Great Ocean Road trip is approximately 350 km driving one way from Melbourne to Warnambool. Thats a pretty good official description, but its like calling the Mona Lisa a piece of cloth with colour splashed over it. That - I can most definitely confirm - it is most definitely not.

We started the day with a Holden Commodore as our vehicle (rented, of course) - a vehicle worthy of the trip, if I may add. It now is one of my favourite cars - but thats a different story for another time. Starting from Melbourne, we got on to the Princess highway for the first part of our trip, which would take us to Geelong and then Torquay, from where the road actually begins.

Geelong and Torquay are two sea-side towns popular amongst surfers. So good beaches, surfer dudes and (ahem) the ladies (the ladies and dudes are common animals; found all along the roads and beaches - we'll skip their descriptions here). Also a surfer museum, shops for surfing paraphernalia etc etc. I was hoping we would stop there for a while, and maybe get a glimpse of some live surfing, but we did not stop there for too long - it was keeping us from the main fare of the journey.

And so the road began - miles and miles and miles of lovely silken smooth highway winding its way across towns, hills, beaches. I have a dream of maybe doing that trip on a nice bike some day - I can't possibly imagine the exihileration of feeling the cool moist breeze across my face, and the dull throb of a bike pulling me along those paths. It is possible to do this - there is a pretty large number of B&Bs along the road (Bed and Breakfast) - places to stop over at night, grab a bite and move on. People are friendly and hospitable for the most part, so no problems with that as well.

But lets get back to the "main fare" of the journey. Two colours - Green, and Blue.

The green of the trees, the plants, the grass. The green of the leaves fluttering in the breeze. The green of a carefully maintained ecosystem coexisting with human dwellings. The green that comes of a culture that recognizes and values the earth that nurtures it. The green with the Koalas hiding behind it. (The kangaroos were a no-show despite countless signs saying that we are in a kangaroo crossing zone). The blue of the sky - a clear expanse save for some cotton puff clouds. It extends till far away - upto and beyond the horizon, till the only thing seperating the sky from the earth is a suggestion of a thin line. Below the line is a stark blue expanse of water. Deep blue sea from your feet to as far as you can see and beyond - all the way up to the frozen ice of Antarctica.

But getting back from my impressionist musings - back to the road. There are lots of locations to stop at - the Split Point, Apollo bay, a hundred little beaches hidden just behind the bushes. Lots of camp sites and barbecue points for the campers. A holiday atmosphere throughout the stretch.

We halted at Apollo Bay, a lovely beach with a string of roadside restaurants and bistros. Pizzas for lunch, and we went off on a detour - there's a small trek route of around 1.5 kms slightly off the main road that ends at a delightful waterfall. A wooden platform is present at a vantage point for viewers. But no platforms for us - we went "off the road", so as to say, and clambered onto the stones, and generally made a nuisance of ourselves. Apparently, this style of holidaying appealed to the others behind us. By the time we left, there was a small crowd on the waterfall and the stream, and no one on the platform.

Back on the main road, we tabbed down Apollo Bay for a longer stay on our way back. In between we also stopped at what is called the 'Split Point'. This is a place where one can see a marked difference in the shade of the water to the left and to the right - almost like a someone has drawn a boundary and coloured the water to one side with a darker shade of blue. Other attractions for the traveller at this place are a lighthouse, and a nice little cafe with a pet cockatoo near the gate. Didn't stop there too long as well. We were getting late in our schedule to reach Warnambool. Here's how the discovery was made -

#1 : Hey that clock on the building says 6.30p. My watch says 5.30p!
#2 : How's that possible? Are we in a different time zone?
#3 : Ummm - isn't it more likely the clock has stopped?
#4 : No re - this is Australia, not India. The clock must be running...
#1 : Yeah Australia is so big - I think I had heard there are two timezones or something of tht sort...

All : Oh shit! We have only 1.30 hours to get to Warnambool! Quick! To the car!

(At this time we were about halfway through the journey only - lots of road to be covered to get to Warnambool)

And with the realization setting in, we decided to stop stopping at every place on the road, and to get to Warnambool, get the room we had booked, and then maybe explore the town a little. We stepped on the gas, and were soon flying around the road. Obviously, Murphy's laws had not kicked in since some time, and we were getting a little restless. One of us said, "No cops on the road since quite some time." Around five more minutes passed without incident or comment. Then a violet Lancer overtook us from the right at breakneck speed. For a moment we thought it was some madcap trying out his hand at rally driving - then we saw the red and blue lights and a hand motioning at us to pull over. Apparently, we had been driving above the speed limit since some time, and were being tailed by the police. Once they decided we were not about to slow down, we were intercepted. Well - another kind of experience.

An hour and a half and AUD 210 (speeding fine) later, we were standing in our room. The time was 7.00p. Yeah, it was Australia, not India, but the clock had stopped running.

Warnambool is a nice little fishing town. Its like the other Australian towns - not crowded, clean, nice roads. Lots of eateries with chinese food. Even one with mexican, if I remember right. Warnambool has a whale watching platform that is active in the winter - but nothing much to see except the sunset over there. We were there in February - which is around the middle of summer in Australia (It's the southern hemisphere, remember? So what is summer above the equator is winter below, and vice versa). However, its a nice quite place to take the night break. Then wake up in the morning, grab some breakfast, and get going on the way back. And thats exactly what we did.

There are two ways back - one is inland and somewhat shorter. The other is the way by which we arrived from Melbourne - longer, but more scenic. We had left one important stop in our rush to get to Warnambool - The famous 'Twelve Apostles'. And we were determined to see it. So back we went on the same road (with the great NFS champion in the drivers seat). On the menu were - the Twelves Apostles, a winery not so far off from the main track and Apollo bay.

Well, to cut a long story short - we got to the first of the 'menu' somewhat over 2 hours behind schedule; the reason being the 'scenic lookout' markers placed throughout the roadsides. These are areas where one can park his/her vehicle and walk a little to an observation point. After millenia of pounding from the ocean, Australia's southern seaface has crumbled and broken and there are a lot of rocks that have been seperated from the main landmass. Although the 'Twelve Apostles' are the most famous examples of these, there are other such smaller locations are equally beautiful - we stopped at the 'Grotto', the 'Thunder caves', 'London Bridge' and a lot more whose names I don't recall at the moment.

Basically, what happened is that, by the time we got to the Twelve Apostles, we were already saturated with sights of rocks jutting out of the ocean. And when we did see the view, our reaction was like - 'Whats so special? Larger number of rocks?!'. We were told later that the twelve apostles look best at sunset. So two learnings - Don't see other rocks before you see these; and see it at sunset. Although the name suggests twelve of them, there are actually nine. The last one fell some time in the nineties. Its one of the great spectacles that Australia offers - and despite what I've written - its really worth seeing it. From the observation deck, you have the continent behind you, the blue ocean in front of you, and the 9 rocks standing to your left and to your right. The breeze is cool, and the scene is like it has been cut out of a postcard.

We moved on from the apostles and proceeded to the next stop - the winery. Australian wine is pretty famous, and there is a large number of wineries around the place. My memory fails me again, and I cannot recall the name of the winery we went to. Its a small place - however the lady who showed us around was very nice. We had a long talk with her - tasted a couple of the wines, clicked one or two photos and took off from the place.

I guess we lost our way while getting back from this place - we stopped once in the way to have lunch (Everybody was really really hungry by then). And then we took a wrong turn. We kept going and going and going - the tarmac turned into a pebbled path, and then someone said the dreaded words, "I think we are lost, aren't we?" We halted, pulled out the map and started looking for ourselves. We finally found us - not too far off the track; and decided to press forward till we got on to the next main road. In the meantime, the surroundings had changed from green hills to almost rain-forest (!). Lots of birds and greenery - It was looking like a racing track on one of my racing games (I'm sure someone is going to clobber me if I mention NFS again). The sky was not visible because of the trees. It was a welcome change from the scenery we had been seeing since the last two days. I mean, yeah, that was beautiful - but a change is a change and we were relieved. That part of the journey was unexpected, unplanned and memorable. Not sure how many other tourists have been on this track - there were no other vehicles along that route.

We finally got out of the forest and back to the road. In 30 minutes time, we were having Pizza in Apollo Bay. Same shop, nice pizza, nice coffee, nice beach. We stripped to our shorts, jumped into the water and proceeded with the monkey antics. Half an hour later, a sweet water bath, another coffee to warm up the internals, and we were back on the way.

Back in Melbourne, we were in no state to do anything else. Got the car parked, got dinner, found the bed and fell into it.

NOTE: Once the road begins, its miles and miles of smooth driving (Achtung! All you driving freaks) - with the ocean on one side and the hills on the other. The beauty is breathtaking. For the benefit of the sight-seeing tourists, there are small detours at regular intervals that give you unending opportunities to let your jaw drop. Just keep in mind to pick it up everytime that happens.