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Great Ocean Road: If Only We Had a Convertable

From Australia: Where They Don't Like It When You Say, "The Only Thing I Know About Australia is Crocodile Dundee and The Crocodile Hunter" in Great Ocean Road, Australia on Apr 28 '06

The Newell Post has visited no places in Great Ocean Road
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Loch Ard Gorge.  Back in the 1800's there was a shipwreck here of the "Loch Ard".  All but 2 people on board were killed.  The 2 survivors were both 18: one boy and one girl.  The local media tried to create a romantic twist between them, but nothing like that ever happened.
Loch Ard Gorge. Back in the 1800's there was a shipwreck here of the "Loch Ard". All but 2 people on board were killed. The 2 survivors were both 18: one boy and one girl. The local media tried to create a romantic twist between them, but nothing like that ever happened.
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The Great Ocean Road is considered to be one of the worlds best drives.  For those in Atlantic Canada, it's reminiscent of the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton.  Heather and I had driven that route, so we were excited to check out the GOR.

If you're one who gets car sick easily, you might want to consider taking some motion sickness pills first.  The road is so twisty and turny.  Most of the time it's so narrow that you have to majorly hug the shoulder lest you crunch head on with the bloke driving in the opposite direction.  You definitely have to keep both eyes on the road at all times.  This is actually a shame for whoever is driving (we split the driving responsibility) since you miss quite a bit of the scenery.  And what scenery it is!

If you're one who gets car sick easily, you might want to consider taking some motion sickness pills first.
London Bridge, minus the bridge.  This used to be connected to the mainland until around 1990 when the "bridge" collapsed, stranding 2 startled tourists who had to be rescued by helicopter!
London Bridge, minus the bridge. This used to be connected to the mainland until around 1990 when the "bridge" collapsed, stranding 2 startled tourists who had to be rescued by helicopter!
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The coastline is just beautiful.  Here and there there are pulloffs so you can get out and take a walk to some coastal feature.  We probably stopped at about 3/4 of them.  THE most famous is known as the 12 Apostles.  You'll see tons of different postcards featuring them.  It's likely one of the most photographed areas of Australia.  And busy...holy sheet!  There were so many tourists there along with us.  And everybody was taking pictures.  Some people were even pushing other people out of the way to not block their photo op.

There's so many nice photo opportunities here. And so many photo takers too!
There's so many nice photo opportunities here. And so many photo takers too!
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The 12 Apostles were nice, but there were so many other features worth exploring.  We particularly like the Loch Ard Gorge (see the caption on the picture for an interesting story on the gorge) and London Bridge.

Not everything worth seeing in along the coastline, however.  There's some nice inland walking trails you can take too.  One of these trails that we took lead to a nice waterfall.  Along the way we were pleasantly surprised to come across 2 different koalas.  What a nice treat.  One of them just slept, but the other one was awake and eating.  Heather was in love.  She's such a sucker for those guys!

I'm not sure how many of the sea stacks still exist.  Eight, I think.
I'm not sure how many of the sea stacks still exist. Eight, I think.
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Michael and Heather


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