On the Road Again

The morning began quite astray. Thick clouds covered the sky as Kate, Corey, and I picked up our Hyundai Getz at the downtown Budget Car Hire. After driving for only 5 minutes outside of the city, we got lost and had to stop at a local café for directions to the Princes Freeway. To top off the morning, we got caught in Melbourne’s Friday morning traffic for approximately thirty minutes while trying to leave the city. Could anything else go wrong? I’ll get back to this a little later in the blog.


Despite the morning obstacles, we managed to reach the first destination on our Great Ocean Road trip, Torquay, at the planned time of arrival. You have to understand that the Great Ocean Road is…well…a greatly long trip. The entire journey one way takes over five hours to complete – that is if no stops are made to take in the amazing scenery around you or to capture a Kodak moment. Therefore, in order to properly view some of the more notable landmarks along the Great Ocean Road, a very precise timeline must be planned and adhered to.


Torquay, Bells Beach, Apollo Bay. We arrived at all of our planned destinations and activities ahead of schedule, and with pictures to remember them with! Next on our stop was the Otway Fly – a 600 metre tree top walk elevated 25 metres high in the rainforest tree tops of Victoria's Otway Ranges. Unsure if we had missed a turnoff, we made a U-turn on a side road, and it was then that it happened. Our unusually wide U-turn left our car stuck in a large patch of mud a la rainforest. Luckily, we were only stuck for about 20 minutes before a nice gentleman was able to tow us out with his truck. Thank goodness for the popularity of the Great Ocean Road! Had the same incident happened in the outback, I may not have survived to write this entry!

We never did make it to the Otway Fly or Triplet Falls (the gentleman who rescued us recommended the falls over the more tourist geared Otway Fly). However, we were able to view the 12 Apostles and Bay of Islands before the sun set.

We stopped for the night in Port Fairy, a quaint fishing village with a population of 2,600 people. Sadly, most of the shops were closed by the time we arrived so we did not get to do much exploring. The holiday home that we stayed at, however, provided a much need rest stop for all 3 of us after the long day of driving.